Punishment

I don’t normally blog about football, but the bizarre way the match between Denmark and Sweden ended is intriguing.

As far as I understand, Denmark is to be punished because a Danish fan ran onto the pitch and tried to attack the referee.

If the punishment is due to the match having being arranged by Denmark, I think it’s more or less fair. On the other hand, if it’s due to the fan being Danish, I think it’s a slippery slope. For instance, if I wanted Denmark to win the next match against Sweden, I could pay a Swede to attack the referee, and Sweden would get penalised. Also, given that many spectators might have placed huge bets on specific results, it will not always be obvious to outsiders what result they might want to achieve by attacking the officials, and penalising the wrong team would be difficult.

As I see it, the offending spectator and the hosts should be penalised (and obviously, if a player attacks the referee, their team should be punished). Otherwise, rich fans will start hiring attackers, and everyone will suffer.

Opdatering (11/6): Det ser ud til, Michael Laudrup har tænkt de samme tanker (eller bare har læst denne blog): “Der er lande, hvor det kan ske, at en klub vil sende en fan ind på banen og til angreb på dommeren, som så giver dem en sejr på 3-0, forudser den tidligere Brøndby-træner i et interview med den spanske sportsavis AS.”