Hiddink annoyed by press and in support of Drogba
By dixon9
May 8 2009
Guus Hiddink outlined his support for striker Didier Drogba and understandably snapped at reporters after being asked the same question on five different occasions during a pre-match press conference.
The focus from the media, not surprisingly, was concentrated on the after-match incidents on Wednesday night’s champion’s league match against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge.
Hiddink stated that he did not agree with the public slating orchestrated by the media of Drogba re the Ivorian´s swearing during the extreme emotion he was experiencing (Personally, after the complete farce by the referee and obvious influence of UEFA I can’t say I blame him either).
After repeated questioning on Drogba Hiddink responded with "I have answered this question five times already."
As for the possible UEFA punishment:"They can do it - they have the power, but take into consideration, the emotion of the injustice that was felt.
"It’s up to them. But people have apologised for their behaviour which is the first step toward the first thing in life. I do not forget so easily, I said I could understand the reaction from the players though.
"If we lose in a normal way then we are sad, but the way we were eliminated gave this reaction. We talked about this – he Drogba must not react like he did - but I can understand these emotions. I empathise."
Pleasingly, Hiddink stated that he would not support any internal punishment from the club on Drogba (contrary to various press reports in the media):"I don't think so,” said the Dutchman.
“Apologising is openly a big step forward. We have to go on."
Interestingly, Hiddink confirmed that he dos not make recommendations on what players should be offloaded in the summer:
"That's not up to me, to be honest."
Hiddink also denied that owner Roman Abramovich was angry with certain player’s behaviour after the match (again, contrary to what the media are claiming):
"He did not give this comment that you are suggesting to me.
“I spoke with him yesterday; I was disappointed we did not take our chances. He said Chelsea gave a very good performance, and I agreed.”
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Credit to the man, backing HIS players all the way and although Drogba's behaviour was bound to capture the headlines and deflect the CORRUPT nature of UEFA and their snail face smug EL PRESIDENTE Michel Platini, the media have gone over the top... way over.
Imagine Platini being Presidente of Cuba or Zimbabwe - he would be worse than Castro and Mugabe.
The geezer is a slug... ok a snail
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I’d call it an “indirect conspiracy”; a referee who has favoured Barcelona (against Lyon earlier in the CL) in the past is selected, a referee, who has already blotted his copybook and was sent home early after serious errors in Euro 2008. This ref knows he’s on his last legs with UEFA and their referees committee and he knows that Platini and Blatter have made no secret of not wanting an all-English final. Trouble is, UEFA and Ovrebo probably didn’t expect us to have as many one-on-one breakaways and pen type fouls - so it becomes more and more difficult to make the favouritism less evident.
Having ONE serious injustice against you in a game can happen…but in an important game and for there to be 3-4 is pretty much unprecedented.
No one really cares though of course. UEFA have kept the sponsors, advertisers and the TV companies happy because that’s the final most wanted to see.
Ovrebo will probably never have a top class match to ref again – but no doubt he’ll get a nice little pension.
Most of us know that the game with its vast amounts of money is slightly tainted with favouritisms and corruption where UEFA are concerned - but I never realised it could go so far. We do know that there has been corruption with FIFA and in UEFA, Blatter and also in the referees committee (“How they stole the game” and German referees betting scandal).
How the above can not be considered plausible taking into account what happened on Wednesday night?
I think the only other way to demonstrate it is following;
Imagine identical incidents to those of Stamford Bridge at the Nou Camp – 4 poss. pens.
Now imagine they are in favour of Barcelona.
How many pens do you think they would be awarded?
There’s your answer.
It must be a similar feeling that those Liverpool fans experienced at the San Siro in 1965 for the match against Inter.
I’ll watch Chelsea in CL games in the future because they are my team but that competition will never have the same meaning it had for me before Wednesday night.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.