SOCCER:ARSENE WENGER has accused Uefa of behaving like a "dictatorship" and of showing inexplicable "arrogance" in the wake of its decision to bring improper conduct charges against him and Samir Nasri following Arsenal's Champions League exit in Barcelona on Tuesday night.
The manager remains furious at the Swiss referee Massimo Busacca for giving Robin van Persie a second yellow card on 56 minutes for kicking the ball away, a decision he maintains “destroyed” the last-16 second leg at the Camp Nou and allowed Barcelona to advance. Wenger and Nasri clashed after the tie with Busacca, who reported them to Uefa for their use of “inappropriate language”. Yet it has been Uefa’s subsequent actions that have deepened Wenger’s sense of injustice.
He suggested the governing body ought to have apologised to Arsenal for the controversial decision, rather than going on the offensive with the charges. The club have until Monday to submit their defence and Uefa’s control and disciplinary body meets next Thursday to consider its verdict. If found guilty, Wenger and Nasri could be fined and banned for up to two European matches.
“Arsenal Football Club has been punished,” Wenger said. “When you have a football game of that stature, you cannot come out with decisions like that and show a lot of arrogance on top of that. We can all understand we can make wrong decisions but, after that, it becomes dictatorship. It’s not common sense any more. A bit more humility would do Uefa some good. To apologise for what happened would be much better than to charge people who have done nothing wrong. Uefa has to have a little bit (of a) low profile after what happened.
“We are out of the Champions League, we have lost one of our big ambitions, we have been punished with a lot of damages and, on top of that, we have to say sorry to Uefa. We have done nothing wrong. They organised the competition, they named the referees. It’s not to me (they should apologise). They do not punish me. It’s Arsenal Football Club that has been punished.”
Wenger outlined his determination to fight the charge and he muttered darkly when he was asked whether he had sworn at Busacca. “I will keep that for Uefa if they really want to know because I will have some interesting statements to make about some statements made by people who were not supposed to say what they said,” he replied. “Did Busacca say something back to me? I don’t want to go public on that.
“Our not having a shot on target was our biggest problem but that would not have happened had we stayed 11 versus 11, believe me. We had already given a lot before being down to 10 men. The referee knew exactly at that moment in time and I knew exactly what would happen; that in the last 20 minutes, it will be too difficult.”
Wenger must pick up his players for the FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester United tomorrow, when he will be without the injured Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Alex Song and Thomas Vermaelen, goalkeepers Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski. Wenger said he wants to make an emergency loan signing of a goalkeeper to serve as the understudy to Manuel Almunia.
