UEFA Are Cowards

UEFA have banned AC Milan goalkeeper Dida for 2 games, and fined Celtic £25,000.

I agree with the banning of Dida, his play-acting was dishonourable, embarrassing and worthy of the amount of abuse that he has received over the past week.

But £25,000 for Celtic? That's about as disproportionate as Peter Crouch being subbed for Shaun Wright-Phillips.

When Michel Platini took over as President of UEFA, he promised to crack down on violence and racial abuse within the game with a zero-tolerance policy. So a slap on the wrist then?

The fan who ran onto the pitch could have done a lot worse. If he had any sort of weapon, even a simple hard object, he had the potential to do some actual harm to Dida. The fine should have been at least 10 times that amount, a serious deterrent to Celtic fans, and a wake up call to security at Parkhead.

So why didn't UEFA fine Celtic more?

Firstly, no actual physical harm was done. The fan ran onto the pitch, tapped Dida on the cheek, and then ran off again. If Dida had been injured, the fine imposed would have been very severe.

Secondly, the game wasn't abandoned due to the fan's actions. When Dida was hit by a flare thrown by Inter Milan Ultras a few years ago, the game was abandoned, and Inter were forced to play several games behind closed doors. A similar punishment was handed out when referee Anders Frisk was hit by a lighter during a Roma game. Both these and the Celtic incident were examples of poor crowd behaviour, but the difference was that the Celtic game continued after.

Thirdly, Celtic had taken internal action. They found the man responsible for the 'attack', banned him for life from Celtic Park, and he was then charged by the police for Breach of the Peace. Had they not punished an individual, UEFA may have laid more blame on the club as a whole, resulting in a bigger punishment.

Finally, in my opinion, UEFA are bottlers. Time and time again, racial abuse and violence occurs at football matches, only for European football's governing body to impose ridiculously low fines on the perpetrators. It is hard to understand why, but it is a further worrying sign that Platini could be all talk and no walk.

As for Celtic, they can count themselves lucky.

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