Jose was right all along about Barca/UEFA

[Myles_91]

With Iniesta beating Ronaldo to the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award there can be no doubt UEFA openly favour Barcelona.

Iniesta had a poor season (by his standards) and performed poorly in the big games, I'd argue even Pedro was better, Fabregas too for the first half of last season. Ronaldo scores 60 goals in all competitions and almost single handedly leads Real to a CL final and wins La Liga with an overwhelming percentage of Reals goals coming from him. Ronaldo scores or assists in almost every Clasico that season and nothing, it's an outrage.

I'd bet my house that if Iniesta didn't play for Barca he wouldn't have got that award, it's almost as if Barca players win it by default. The media and rival fans laughed and scorned at Jose when he dared to suggest UEFA were biased in favour of their precious Barca but now all football fans (nearly) can see them for what they are.

P.S Messi is a c**t after what he said about our CL win. Typical Barca though, classless. As stupid as this sounds the fans deserve better. Applauding us off the pitch after the 2-2 was one of the most classy acts I've ever seen from any set of supporters, they recognised a true sporting achievement through hard work and determinarion, in contrast to the players that wear their badge.

Rant Over

[That Boy Brandinho]

Ronaldo most certainly did not do anything for Real "almost single handedly". That team is absolutely loaded with talent.

Iniesta winning the award is strange indeed, but it's Messi who should have won, not Ronaldo.

[Myles_91]

Put it this way Without Ronaldo Real could not have achieved what they did. Without Iniesta Barca could have

[Remodez]

Wasn't Iniesta injured for most of the season?

Pretty messed up that he won.

[That Boy Brandinho]

Put it this way Without Ronaldo Real could not have achieved what they did. Without Iniesta Barca could have

Of course, I'm not disagreeing with you that Ronaldo deserved the award more than Iniesta. I just happen to think Messi deserved it more than both.

[BernardLambourde]

What did Messi say about our CL win?

As for UEFA favouring Barca, just look at their CL group today compared to Real's. Of course it's impossible to say UEFA are fixing the draws in their favour but I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Edited August 30, 2012 by BernardLambourde

[Englishman]

^^ I think he said we were lucky to win it. I wonder if he thinks Barca were lucky to get past us in 2009.

Not sure Uefa would take the trouble to rig a journalists' vote. It's not as if it's the Ballon D'or anyway. Quite often there are strange choices for these awards, players can win based on their reputation rather than what they've done recently. Remember a few years ago when Giggs won the PFA award despite only making about 15 starts that season. Van Basten won the Ballon D'or when he'd been out injured for most of the year.

[Liam]

Of course it's impossible to say UEFA are fixing the draws in their favour but I wouldn't be at all surprised.

In fact they fix the entire competition. (except last year's of course)

[JoeyN]

They heat the balls up in the draw. Heated ones are clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City so when they pick a big boy, they know to go for the heated balls. Happens in the knock-out draws, not too sure about the groups. They rig the draw to make an El Classico final. Did it last year, will do it again.

[Liam]

They heat the balls up in the draw. Heated ones are clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City so when they pick a big boy, they know to go for the heated balls. Happens in the knock-out draws, not too sure about the groups. They rig the draw to make an El Classico final. Did it last year, will do it again.

That's the spirit.

[Spiller86]

meh I really like iniesta.Good player and underestimated by many compared to the usual suspects

[Englishman]

They heat the balls up in the draw. Heated ones are clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City so when they pick a big boy, they know to go for the heated balls. Happens in the knock-out draws, not too sure about the groups. They rig the draw to make an El Classico final. Did it last year, will do it again.

The only problem with that dastardly plan is that both Barca and Real lost in the semis last season and the season before that they met in the semis!

[coco]

IAs stupid as this sounds the fans deserve better. Applauding us off the pitch after the 2-2 was one of the most classy acts I've ever seen from any set of supporters, they recognised a true sporting achievement through hard work and determinarion

Dont be fooled by that applause, it was not aimed at us, they were applauding their own team, not us.

[The Moos]

meh I really like iniesta.Good player and underestimated by many compared to the usual suspects

Well there's a reason why some say Messi isn't as good without him and Xavi.

[Mummy]

you should have a peek at manutd's redcafe forum, most members seem to rate iniesta as highly as Zidane...hes a great player and all but i dont think hes too too special, you could stick me inside the barca starting XI and we would probably still finish top 5 in la liga

[TJB]

you should have a peek at manutd's redcafe forum, most members seem to rate iniesta as highly as Zidane...hes a great player and all but i dont think hes too too special, you could stick me inside the barca starting XI and we would probably still finish top 5 in la liga

Or they could stick with Iniesta and continue to be one of the best sides in Europe.

[g3.7]

conspiracy nonsense is fun and all but when people truly believe it you really think "I hope this person doesn't own a pair of scissors or any other sharp objects".

as usual, whenever there is a major international tournament the performances in that one month are given an illogical amount of weight in these kinds of awards.

iniesta was player of the tournament in the european championships and that is why he's won this award. it doesn't have anything to do with barcelona.

IMO over the 12 months messi was again the real best player in europe, followed by ronaldo, but I don't think anyone should be surprised at this result. cannavaro won world player of the year in 2006 for example!

highly amusing that this award has got people talking about how this award is "an outrage", "heated balls" etc. great stuff. for maximum effect I read this thread with a tin foil hat on. 7/10 look forward to future threads:

"obama is an alien why won't he let us see area 51"

and

"uefa hate chelsea so much they rigged the champions league so they could be embarrassed by atletico in the super cup, the diabolical b*stards!"

[Zeta]

Whilst this is almost certainly nonsense, I would argue that in certain walks of life there most probably are fairly large conspiracies we don't know about, given the nature of people and nations/governments.

[g3.7]

the bigger the institution, the more likely there is to be a leak in my view.

so on that basis I broadly disagree.

[Ozztheboss]

iniesta was player of the tournament in the european championships and that is why he's won this award.

I'm not sure that I entirely agree with this statement.

If that would have been the case, then why didn't Xavi win in 2010? He was the best player in the World Cup 2010 by the provisional country mile. It's not like Messi had a better season in 09/10 than in 11/12 either, so for me it's more down to inconsistency than purely a "wrong decision".

I thought that Ronaldo easily could have won it this year. He scored the winner against Barca in the "La Liga-final", he scored twice against Bayern and was joint top scorer in the Euro's for a rather mediocre side. Messi failed to perform in the "La Liga-final", the two legs against us and didn't participate in the Euro's. Iniesta was very inconsistent last season and struggled with injuries, but had a splendid Euro's.

All three are fantastic footballers, but the "best player in the world"-price means very little when the inconsistency is so visible in my opinion. I think that Iniesta won the price more due to the fact that UEFA was tired of the Ronaldo vs Messi-debate, but what do I know...

[g3.7]

I'm not sure that I entirely agree with this statement.

If that would have been the case, then why didn't Xavi win in 2010? He was the best player in the World Cup 2010 by the provisional country mile. It's not like Messi had a better season in 09/10 than in 11/12 either, so for me it's more down to inconsistency than purely a "wrong decision"....

I'm not saying if you are the best player in an international tournament you will win world / european player of the year. I'm saying those tournaments skew the result.

I'm saying iniesta won this award for his performances for spain rather than for barcelona. in the same way that cannavaro and ronaldo won world player of the year in 2006 and 2002 based on their world cup performances.

in 2010 although messi rightfully won the balon d'or the world cup ensured xavi and iniesta finished in the top 3 even though you might argue over 12 months ronaldo was better than one or both. that's how it's always been.

also worth pointing out that the award was decided by over 50 european journalists rather than uefa or evil michel platini.

[Ozztheboss]

Well, that I agree on. But I also think that their "skew" on the award can give inconsistent premises.

Well, if it's 50 journalists who decide who's winning then I'm even more certain that they were tired of the Ronaldo vs Messi debate.

Anyway, I don't think the award means anything to the players (or at least it shouldn't).

[CodyBound]

Well, if it's 50 journalists who decide who's winning then I'm even more certain that they were tired of the Ronaldo vs Messi debate.

There is an obvious and definite public bias when it comes to Barcelona in most scenarios. It's NOT an intentional conspiracy of any kind by journalists or UEFA. It's this subconscious (and often conscious) idea that they are what all teams should strive to play like. They also draw a positive agenda towards them since they are usually seen as "the good guys" in the Madrid - Barca rivalry, thanks to many disliked figures in Madrid's team and other aspects off the pitch. This favour that they have with the fans, officials, institutions of football and media often clouds people's judgement when it comes to any issue surrounding Barca, and I think this award is perhaps a good example.

Why Iniesta won (IMO):

Reason 1: For me Ronaldo was better than Messi and certainly iniesta this season. We're talking about really small margins here, but I believe he was the one who had the bigger impact. I also think a majority of the journalists who voted will have known the same deep down but God forbid they give the prize to Ronaldo, one of those disliked characters I mentioned earlier, and to team Real Madrid.

Barcelona are an unbelievable collection of players, and they are often models on the pitch on what great football looks like, and a model off the pitch on how to run a club. They frequently bring through youth players, they promote senior figures within the club, the way they work is impressive. But the media and public need to be careful to keep their bias under wraps and not blindly back them in every circumstance.

Reason 2: Whilst Iniesta is an unbelievable player, Messi is the one who has stood out at Barcelona over the past four or five seasons, Ronaldo too when you open up to the wider context. It is amazing that a player of Iniesta's quality can be overshadowed like this, and a lot of people feel sorry for him in this regard. "He deserves recognition" they say to themselves. They feel that he deserves an individual award and by giving him this justice will be done. This award though is for the "BEST PLAYER", not "the player who would be the best player if it wasn't for these other two guys". He is not the best player, therefore he does not deserve to win this, therefore this is nothing more than patronising for him. He absolutely deserves recognition, but lets please not compromise the integrity of this award by pretending he is the one who should win it.

Giggs won the PFA player of the year and sports personality of the year for the same reason. This notion that he deserves recognition for his contribution over his whole life.

This is the way I see it.

[dkw]

At least this one is fairly subjective, which is the award where all the national team managers vote for their top 3 players? Some of those are hilarious.

[Castiel]

you will apologise for baiting? because you didn't want to get into an off topic argument?

you should apologise for being a prick. that's what you should apologise for. if you didn't want to get into an off topic argument you wouldn't have made such a comment.

this isn't the thread for juvenile point scoring, is it?

I hoped you'd just offer an apology and we could then leave it. if anything you've forced me to give this response.

http://www.thesheden...bout-barcauefa/

that's the thread to which you refer. are you honestly saying you think pouring scorn on the idea of heated balls in the champions league draw is the same as denying the possibility that 96 people were unlawfully killed at hillsborough?

I am 100% certain that you aren't that stupid. you know that the phrase "conspiracy nonsense" means aliens at roswell, obama not an american and uefa fixing a sportswriters award at the behest of a football club. it doesn't mean "there are and have never been cover ups". you know that now, and you did then.

so to write:

in response to

implying that I think what dkw wrote there is "nonsense" is an incredibly cheap shot.

I do not, and not just because my dad was there (and for some reason doesn't count it among his best memories), but because I have some sense of tact.

there probably is a time and a place to be a disingenuous prick, but it probably isn't here and now. evidently you cannot help yourself.

Well when you go around spouting such absolutes as:

conspiracy nonsense is fun and all but when people truly believe it you really think "I hope this person doesn't own a pair of scissors or any other sharp objects.

the bigger the institution, the more likely there is to be a leak in my view.

so on that basis I broadly disagree.

It sort of proves the point I was making when you throw a tantrum and get all outraged over perceived implications. Of course I'm not implying that you think this is all bullsh*t. I'm just saying, don't go around calling people retarded because its hip to wave off the hysterical cries of "conspiracy" because its just utterly ridiculous that a large institution, like say, the Police, could possibly pull something like that off without leaks.

You might think I'm being a prick but I'm not the one bullying people for their opinions, then getting all hysterical when called out on it. You also can't pull out lines like "my dad was there God damnit!" and go on to talk about tact in the same sentence. Seriously?