Frans Thijssen cited for comments over Roar's washout loss

Batou - See below and you will read why I mentioned "lightning" in relation to "player safety". Cheers jb

Waz- The reason I cited the lightning angle was that back in NSL days I was writing comment for a Sydney football paper and wrote one of the first articles suggesting our NSL (at the time) should be played in summer. I was ostracised in the Sydney press as the "mad b.....d in Brisbane who would go to his grave with the deaths of "soccer players" on his conscience (due to heat exhaustion)".What the pundits not mention was that before writing the article the local meteorological society had been consulted and passed the opinion that playing football in the evening in Brisbane would attract a far greater threat from Brisbane's summer storms which were usually accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning than it would ever get from heat exhaustion. To the best of my knowledge since "summer soccer" was introduced in the NSL in 1990,that is 25 years, no player has lost his life when playing the game due to heat exhaustion. That occurrence makes me wonder if it is that statement on lightning that has seen a ruling basing abandonment on "safety of players". Cheers jb

Perhaps jb, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that lightning was the reason that the game was abandoned. All I've heard is that it was 'unplayable' which I'd have to disagree with. It was certainly bad conditions but I don't think it was impossible to play it out. Interesting story about John White. Golf courses are notoriously bad places to be in an electrical storm. Partly because it always seems to get bad when you reach the furthest point on the course from the club house!

jb - Your point is sound and his choice of words may well made it sound stronger that intended but I guess they'll take that into consideration when they meet. There was a huge debate elsewhere on this site (150 comments and still growing) on whether the rules needed amending and it turned into a bun-fight of epic proportions and yet there would seem to be two distinct questions to be addressed (1) is law 22.22 appropriate and fair? And (2)bwhat is the process for determining if a game should be abandoned? The first one I took no real issue with but the immediate abandonment frustrated me because the pitch was playable within 45 minutes (which I can believe, I've seen worse af Suncorp before s kick-off and seen the pitch drain plus on the night the rain had also stopped) and the second was a reported game in Brazil where the game was halted for 50 minutes due to torrential rain and then successfully resumed to a conclusion. For me the episode was handled in an ameteur fashion when it would have seemed relatively easy to adopt a different process to see if the pitch returned to a safe state. It's not surprising some of thd fan forums called for a fan boycott of the next game! Alas we will get thd same outcome in future as thd authorities seem content to abandon a game immediately.

Batou - Thanks for the support but I'm afraid man hasn't yet contained where lightning can strike.They can induce strikes towards conducters in buldings,ships ,even planes ,but it is not yet an exact scince so lightning is still a danger where there is water,metal or even human potential to conduct. You may remember a world class player called John White who was found on a golf course sitting under a tree with a golf club in his hands.Struck dead at the peak of his career with Tottenham Hotspur when they were the finest team in England. jb

My thoughts exactly jb. How did they determine that it was unsafe? There's always the risk of injury even in perfect conditions and in fact they happen frequently. Not to mention pitches with a cricket pitch up the middle (north Sydney oval) or excessive temperatures like some if the games played in Perth in the last few seasons (which could have been put back but weren't in order satisfy Fox's requirements for east coast audiences). These are in addition to the general hard pitches that jb refers to, all of which the ffa is apparently fine with. I struggle to see how anyone on the pitch could ever be hit by lightening at Suncorp stadium with its high stands all around...

Despite the snide comments being made around this incident it should be remembered that Frans comes from a non English speaking country and his choice of words may not always describe exactly how he feels. My problem with this rule is what it actually refers to,does it really describe why the game was abandoned?.We can all read and it is quite clear as to the actions and follow up should a game be abandoned before Half Time and after Half Time but what it apparently fails to descibe is the reason for making the abandonment decision. Is rain,even torrential ,dangerous? If a player slides on a puddle and collides with another player is it likely to cause more damage than it would on a dry,hard pitch,the unanswered questions go on and on. Now we all know that "summer downpours" in Brisbane are usually accompanied with extensive lightning strikes and is it this factor that is behind the abandonment feature in the ruling?. Somehow I expect it is and if so it is time a rider was added to the ruling to spell out the safety of players being directly related to the presence of lightning,a factor no one would argue with.jb

@AZRBB So if a coach complains about horribly substandard refereeing they are a whinger? Arnold was right to complain about Janko's goal of the season being unfairly ruled offside as was muscat for being forced to play on cricket pitches. It's called having balls. Anyway for what it's worth popovic has now entered the annals of whingers with his latest sook about juric joining the NT in this round of intl matches. At least arnie and musky had validity to their outspokenness.. I mean let's be real anyone who isn't incensed with the reffing this season or happy to be playing matches on rock&stick ball grounds is a mug. Popovic on the other hand was way out of line and undermined ange. Not a good look.

I plan on turning myself in to FFA HQ on Monday morning as I STILL believe the competition now lacks integrity and honesty; if found guilty I believe I'm up for deportation to England, gulp!!!

I believe to celebrate the FFA have been knocking off 17 minutes early every day this week :)

lol

Nice idea Waz. Perhaps he should just send the youth team coach to fill in for him instead though because the A-League doesn't break for disciplinary meetings and he will be away with the team...

I accused the whole sport of being soft for not playing through the rain... I could be in real trouble

Maybe he should turn up for the disciplinary meeting face-face but then leave 17 minutes before it ends just to make a point???

Hatamoto is watching mate. 2yr year ban coming your way.

looks like a lot of Roar fans on here should be cited too, including me.

Not bad. Still a long way behind Arnold and Muscat in the whinging stakes.