In Defense of Didier Drogba

Charlie Klein
Opinion

Never, ever, in my sportswriting dreams, did I ever expect to pen that headline. And yet here I am, at 11 AM on the west coast, writing it. Didier Drogba is one of my least favourite football players in the game, right up there next to Javier Mascherano, Patrick Viera, and Steven Gerrard. He dives far too often for man of his size and refuses to admit he goes down too easily. Additionally, Drogs, as he is affectionately referred to by the Stamford Bridge faithful, whines continually to referees and is very immature (to my glee in te 2008 Champions League Final getting a red card for slapping Nemanja Vidic in extra time).

So, with all of that understood, why, you must surely be wondering, are you defending a player like that? The four game match ban imposed by UEFA following his conduct at the end of last season's Champions League Semifinal versus Barcelona is egregious. I have three problems with the conduct of UEFA in this matter. The first is that the poor performance turned in by match referee Tom Henning Ovrebo went unpunished by the organisation. Ovrebo missed four obvious penalty situations that should have been awarded to Chelsea. For those who do not remember, Chelsea was leading Barcelona, the eventual champions, 1-0 until an injury time strike from Andres Iniesta which pushed Barcelona through via the away goals rule. It is not an unfounded assumption that if Chelsea had been awarded any one of the four penalties that they deserved to win, it would have been a Chelsea versus Manchester United final in Rome. Ovrebo was subjected to much public scrutiny, becoming the Norsk equivalent of Steve Bartman in southwest London. Yet he will be eligible to officiate further UEFA matches with no penalty by UEFA for his poor efforts.

My second problem with the decision by UEFA is that Michel Platini is the worst person imaginable except for possibly Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, to be in charge of UEFA. Platini offers up many an irrelevant comment on things in which he has no business meddling. His agreement with Blatter's home grown player rule and constant unfounded criticism of the English Premier League makes him appear to be quite the fool. With such an awful president at the helm of the governing body of European Football, how could any ruling which it hands out be understood as any kind of legitimate?

My third problem with the decision is that it is inconsistent with everything else that happened during the game. Jose Bosingwa was also penalized for his conduct, but where is Michael Ballack's? I remember with distinct clarity a Ballack gone wild chasing Ovrebo down the pitch getting in the officials face and at one point appeared to consider hitting the Norwegian referee. It was hilarious to me, since I have dislike Ballack for taking the money at Chelsea instead of signing for United in 2006. The fact that Ballack was not suspended by UEFA for the same if not worse crime than the one committed by Drogba in the same match is illegitimate to the extreme.

So that is why, footy fans, I find myself standing by Didier Drogba on this cloudy northwestern morning. Chelsea fans, don't expect similar arguments to be made by a United supporter for the rest of the century!