Not to beat Eight Belles with this, but, yes, it is another Fulham-UEFA Cup post (to go with this and this).
Of interest is the new Fair Play table.
It has been updated, but only to go back in time. Where it used to say "Matches up to and including 5th May 2008," it now reads "Matches up to and including 28th April 2008" (of course even that depends on when you, the reader, click on the link).
Not that you wouldn't believe us, but after the jump is a screenshot of the cached page.
Anyway you can see the old "newer" date below the "Fair Play Table" heading on the table itself (well, you might need to click on the image to make it large enough so you can see that the FA has indeed mastered time travel).
This presumably means a couple of things. First, the cards from Fulham's match against Birmingham City (two yellows) come back into play. That's an automatic minus-two points. Citeh, who played Liverfourth in the penultimate week of the season, had no cards for that match week.
Second, it allows the FA more wiggle room in awarding positive (or negative) points. I'm not insinuating they are up to anything nefarious, but if Fulham does make up the point gap, it looks a lot less suspicious if it happened over a two week period than over a single match. Like the kids say: "I'm not saying, I'm just saying."
Finally, looking at the table gives us a little insight into the whole idea of whether wikipedia is correct or not with its fan behavio(u)r in the list of criteria. It's not.
Really, can't believe none of us thought to actually look at the point breakdown on that table itself but the categories are: "R/Y, P/P, R/O, R/R, B/O" which, respectively, stand for "Red & Yellow Cards, Positive Play, Respect Towards Opponent, Respect Toward Referee, Behavior of Officials."
Nothing for the fans. So chair-throwing Citeh spectators can breath easy knowing that they didn't fuck their club. Although the players themselves might have taken care of that for them. Really, losing 8-1 to 'Boro should disqualify you from anything.
Except maybe playing in MLS.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Fulhamapalooza
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2 comments:
Good discussion of this in the comments yesterday/today --
SMP said...
The premiership fair-play standings as quoted here were only updated through match 36, so two weeks need to be added. In match week 37, Fulham had two yellows and Man City had zero cards. In match week 38, Fulham had zero cards, Man City had a red and a yellow. Assuming that Fulham and Man City tie in all other categories besides cards (a huge assumption given that Man City was likely behaving poorly while getting mauled 8-1), I predict that Fulham cannot quite make up the points (Man City 8.38, Fulham 8.35)
May 12, 2008 12:40 PM
The Fan's Attic said...
@smp: nice catch, but the note above the table says that the table includes matches up to and including May 5, 2008. So, there appears to be some discrepancy...how it affects the table is unclear at this point.
May 12, 2008 1:48 PM
SMP said...
discrepancy indeed -- these "standings" are bizarre in that they are mostly based on purely subjective criteria -- does anyone know where a more detailed set of standings can be found?
Also, how much does a team receive for playing in the UEFA Cup?
May 12, 2008 8:23 PM
SMP said...
The Premiership "games through" date has been corrected to reflect only games through April 28 confirming that two rounds of games need to be added (the math on the "May 5th" table only made sense if dividing by 36 (not 37), but now the "games through" date matches as well -- quite a high-budget operation they have over there at the most valuable soccer league on earth).
Someone pointed out the discrepancy between the games played at the date a couple of days ago, but I didn't see that the site had been updated until today (I was traveling most of yesterday) until I just happened to click over hoping to see if the points had been updated.
Turns out they were backdated.
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