Winners & Losers (04/01/12)

So who's had a winning Christmas and New Year period and who ate to much turkey and drank too much (Danny Care)?

Winners

The Barclays Premier League - it seems no team with intentions of claiming the title have come through the festive period unscathed with Man Utd and Chelsea both losing at home and Man City, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal all dropping points to 'lesser' teams. It all contributes to a more interesting league, still anyone's to win.

Celtic - previously covered in this blog, Celtic claimed top spot in the SPL for the first time since April with a victory over their arch rivals Rangers. Consolidated with a New Year win over Dunfermline, it's 11 victories on the trot.

Scottish Rugby - a record 13,000+ crowd at Murrayfield and around 9,000 at Firhill saw Glasgow slug it out against Edinburgh to win the 1872 Cup, showcasing some young promising Scottish talent. Both teams are in good form of late, with one month to go until the 6 Nations and the Calcutta Cup.

Adrian Lewis - The Jackpot successfully defended his World Darts title, despite the majority of the crowd cheering on rival Andy Hamilton following farcical scenes in Lewis' semi final where he walked of stage because of a draft.  The final also saw Lewis very close to completing a 9 dart finish, just missing the double 12 on the final dart.

Losers

The NY Jets - it's been a miserable end to the NFL season for the Jets.  Wide receiver Santonio Holmes has been playing like a spoilt brat, playing only for himself and blaming everyone else for his own poor performance and QB Mark Sanchez has again underperformed in his third season.  The final weekend loss at Miami saw Sanchez thow 3 interceptions and persistantly struggle against the Miami defence.  Both players are on shaky ground right now.

Mark Sanchez really needs to improve

Danny Care - already mentioned, but that only reflects the fact that Danny Care has been TWICE reprimanded for drinking related incidents, leading to police charges, a court appearance and expulsion from Stuart Lancaster's consideration for England's 6 Nations title defence. See here for more!

Liverpool - The Anfield club have chosen not to appeal the FA decision to ban Suarez for 8 games following the alleged racist abuse towards Man Utd's Patrice Evra.  The first of those 8 games was played last night with Liverpool losing at Manchester City 3-0.

Suarez Ban Justified

The Football Association last night dished out an 8 match ban and a £40,000 fine to Liverpool's Luis Suarez for racially abusing Patrice Evra of Manchester United.

There has been mixed reaction to the news.  Liverpool issued a formal statement aying it was "very surprised and disappointed" by the FA verdict and punishment, going on to say "We find it extraordinary that Luis can be found guilty on the word of Patrice Evra alone when no-one else on the field of play - including Evra's own Manchester United team-mates and all the match officials - heard the alleged conversation between the two players".

Luis Suarez has 14 days to appeal the FA decision

Regardless of the decision, it was always going to be important what punishment the FA would issue.  The £40,000 is peanuts really, but the 8 match ban is unprecedented, and a lot more severe than most were expecting.  But I feel it is wholly right.

There has been so much talk on this subject throughout this season, with alleged racial abuse taking place on the pitch in at least two games that we know about.  The FA are completely right to take a hard stand on the issue.  Many may argue that they are using Luis Suarez as an example, and that John Terry would never receive such a harsh punishment as he's the national captain.

But we have to believe that the FA would be consistent with any punishment they issue for racially incited abuse on the football pitch and hope that they are in any future cases.

Racial abuse has to be stamped out, and the message needs to be sent to the players that it's completely unacceptable.