By Timothy Collings
LONDON, Jan 5 - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger
launched a scathing attack on deliberate foul play in the
English game on Friday and blamed referees for failing to
protect talented players.
Wenger said he was a great admirer of the bravery and
physical contact that was part of the English style of play, but
said that some players and teams deliberately kicked opponents
and escaped punishment.
"I don't blame the other managers, or the players -- if they
are asked to give 100 per cent, then of course, they do -- but
it is the referees who have to decide how far they can go,"
Wenger told reporters.
"We have a young team and they are kicked and punched. And
in the end, you are still supposed to say 'sorry, I am not
strong enough?' That is difficult to take, frankly.
"I don't feel it is right to punch people in the stomach and
afterwards to say 'ok, they are just babies crying'. It is not
the way I see the game."
He said deliberate foul play could hold the English national
team back in international tournaments like the World Cup
finals.
"And I feel sometimes, if that is football, that's the way
we go then it doesn't progress English football. And I am sorry
because if you go to the World Cup you cannot say you behave
like that -- because you go nowhere," he said.
Wenger also said he had video evidence of well-known players
and managers swearing freely at referees and not being punished,
despite foul and abusive language being a dismissible offence.
Prompted to confirm that Manchester United striker Wayne
Rooney was one of the swearing players, Wenger said: "He is not
the only one."
Wenger said he did not swear at referees and believed
players and managers should not do so at all.