(I can make no guarantees that any of these YouTube clips will remain up for any length of time. The FA is one of the more notoriously diligent removers of their material.)
There are situations which make me just boggle.
It appears as if we have one with the English Premier League's final day today, with dramatics all over England as two Manchester teams battle for the Premiership title, while three teams at the other end of the standings are trying to stay in the top tier.
For those who aren't aware:
English (FA -- Football Association) football is divided into a number of leagues. The Premiership is the highest and richest of those leagues. The top three teams in the Premiership are allowed to play in the Champions' League directly. Normally, the 4th team is allowed in qualifying, but the Grand Final of this year's Champions' League has Chelsea, who finished 6th. By rule, after this happened with Liverpool a number of years back, Chelsea can automatically qualify by defeating Bayern Munich in the Grand Final (as they would then be the defending champions, or "holders"), which would take the fourth team, Tottenham Hotspur, out of qualifying and into the lower Europa League.
(... creating the interesting scenario in which Chelsea must win the Champions' League Grand Final to play in European club tournament football next year at all!)
At the other end, the bottom three teams in the season are relegated (demoted) to the lower Championship level, which is a massive money hit due to television contracts and the like. Two of those three teams, Blackburn and Wolverhampton, were already determined.
One spot remained, and two teams could've been relegated --a third mathematically, but two at the end of the day.
At the top entering today:
Manchester City, with 27 wins, 5 losses and 5 draws, the same as Manchester United. (86 points)
Teams tied (or "level") on points are broken by goal differential.
Manchester City had a +63
Manchester United had a +55
So, by all reasoned manners of football, Manchester City would win the tiebreaker, so a victory at home over Queens Park Rangers would allow them to lift the championship for the first time in 44 years, breaking the stranglehold their cross-town rivals United had, along with Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool.
A tie would mean that Manchester United could lift the trophy with a win at mid-table Sunderland. A City loss would mean United would only have to draw.
Oh, speaking of Queens Park Rangers, the one remaining relegation spot and the three teams involved:
Aston Villa had only 7 wins on the season, but had 17 draws (!) entering today. 38 points, goal differential -14. They played at mid-tabler Norwich.
Queens Park Rangers had to travel to Manchester City. They had 10 wins and 7 draws for 37 points, goal differential -22.
Bolton Wanderers had the same ten wins, but had only five draws entering today. They had 35 points, goal differential -31. They played at lower mid-tabler Stoke.
So all the relegation candidates were on the road. All games kicked off simultaneously.
Man City home to QPR
Sunderland home to Man United
Norwich home to Aston Villa
Stoke home to Bolton Wanderers.
Basically, Villa were to stay up, Bolton needed to win and have QPR lose.
If QPR lost, Man City were the champions. So, all to play for.
We go into the second half of the Man City-QPR match. We are in the 54th minute, and the nervous game is one goal each.
At the same time:
Manchester United were leading 1-0 on a first-half goal by Wayne Rooney.
Norwich are 2-0 up on Aston Villa, but Villa is safe. (That would be the final.)
Most importantly, Bolton Wanderers are leading Stoke 2-1.
If that last result held (and we'll get to that!), Queens Park Rangers would have to hold (and ultimately deny the title to, because 0-1 to Man United was the final at Sunderland) Man City.
THIS happened next (right at the start of the clip):
Just on the left edge of the screen, QPR's Joey Barton appears to have elbowed one of the Manchester City players (Tevez) -- off the ball -- either just outside or just inside the penalty area.
The linesman is flagging for the foul, because the whistle is slightly delayed.
The elbow is clear on the second replay. QPR has just tied the Premier League record for red cards in a season.
He's sent off. The penalty is deemed just outside the box. Barton, after being sent off, ATTACKS ANOTHER PLAYER -- the replay at 2:13 or so showing him kicking the guy in the knee. He's probably cost himself about a fourth of next season (at minimum!) when he has to go in front of the FA and explain this one!
But here's why I post this here:
This is the 55th minute. As of the moment, Joey Barton has just sent his team down to ten men and given up a free kick about 22-24 meters from the goal, a foot or two from giving up a penalty.
At this point, should this lead to Man City winning, Barton has just seen to it that he has sent down Queens Park Rangers (at least as of that point), a loss of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of British Pounds to the team. How any man can call themselves a professional under that set of circumstances (not only on the end of deciding the Premiership at the top of the table, but deeply endangering your own chances of staying in the top flight yourself!) is unimaginable.
This would appear to be a tampered situation, especially with the second attack. I assert, as a layman but familiar with how frequently soccer/football is fixed on occasion, that Joey Barton deliberately got himself sent off to attempt to ensure that Manchester City would win the Premiership, even if it meant his own team were sent down!
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!
About 20 minutes later at Stoke, Bolton Wanderers still leading 2-1. The first goal for Stoke was apparently controversial as well, as it appeared as if it was headed out of the goalkeeper's hands.
I have no video of this, YouTube, legal, or otherwise. (I have Tweeted the link to this post to both Brian Tuohy and one of football's foremost authorities on match-fixing, Declan Hill of "The Fix", to see if they can find it.)
Peter Crouch draws a penalty for Stoke against that same goalkeeper, and Stoke put it in to square the match at 2-2. Later, Owen Coyle blasted the officials for both goals...
Goals which ultimately sent down Bolton Wanderers -- the game ended 2-2.
BUT WE STILL HAVE A TITLE DECIDER!!!
QPR then rebounds from the bizarre antics of Mr. Barton and take the lead on City about ten minutes after the red card.
However, the incident by Barton has added significant stoppage time to the match -- a total of five minutes accruing in the second half! At full 90 minutes, the match is still 1-2 to QPR, and Manchester United is about to lift the trophy -- again...
And that's when things got crazy...
On this YouTube clip at about 2:38 or so, you see the replay of the goal which squares the match at 2-2 at Manchester City. About a minute into the extra five, a corner kick is given to City, and the center is perfect to an ABJECTLY UNCHALLENGED Edin Dzeko for the equalizer. (Better look on second replay at 2:45 - 2:50)
He's five yards from the dead center of the goal! And UNMARKED and UNTOUCHED, he is gifted an equalizer.
And then, just two minutes later in the match, with Manchester United still holding the trophy...
Note at 3:06-3:08, the announcer says they just won the title. There's 90 seconds plus however much it takes to get the game restarted still left! (Not uncommon, frankly, for this announcer: The David Beckham free kick which sent England to the World Cup tournament (with a draw to Greece) four years after his red card against Argentina got a similar response.) A reference to the "Hollywood" nature of this is also mentioned.
The Manchester United match has already ended. Wayne Rooney is saluting the crowd at The Stadium of Light (Sunderland's pitch). And then the replay at 3:40. The ball becomes very hard to follow, and it appears as if a player is nearly taken down in the circle at the head of the penalty area.
In the scramble, Sergio Aguero slots it in on the short side, and Man City are champions.
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