Suarez's Disciplinary Hearing Begins

Even three-toes sloths get to their destination eventually.

After a couple months of "investigating", the FA finally has begun their disciplinary hearing on Luis Suarez and his alleged "comment" to Patrice Evra during that match in fucking October. That's right, fucking October.

I don't think there's any way I can express what a farce this has been .Thanks to the FA's incompetence, or need for press, or just incredibly slow workings, this has become a complete circus. It has poisoned an already contemptuous rivalry that never needs much to boil over into unpleasant. It will turn the return fixture between these two to a near riotous level. It has made Luis Suarez a villain already, and he hasn't even be found guilty, Would the press and opposing fans alike be so quick to jump on El Pistolero if this hadn't become the county fair that it is now? I wonder.

What was so hard about this? You talk to Evra and Suarez and get their stories. You talk to the rest of the players on the pitch. Sure, they're likely to side with their teammate, and probably bend their story to that. It's not like you have to take an oath to talk to the FA. But there's already a couple objective arbiters on the pitch, they're called the refs. And there's three of them on the field, in constant touch with one off. What did they see and hear? Follow that up with a review of any video you think might help, and that should be it. That could all be done in two-three days tops. England isn't that big of a country.

But the FA is a spineless, clueless organization. How it wasn't severely overhauled after it pissed down its own leg after letting the English press beat it into hiring Steve McClaren -- who's only qualification seemed to be throwing six strikers on at the end of a string of UEFA Cup matches that somehow pulled of miracle wins to get to a final where they were horribly exposed by a real team in Sevilla -- I have no idea. That wasted another tournament with Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, and a couple others in their prime.

This is an organization that has watched all the other European powers pass them by on the international stage, and can't figure out why. This is a body that had to have a national stadium instead of overhauling how it develops its players to compete with the Spains, Germanys, and Italys of the world. What would the England fans rather have? A national stadium that cost the same as a small war that most of them are far away from or an international team that actually has a chance of winning something one day?

Do Spain, Germany, Italy, France, or any other European power have a national stadium? No. The national team tours around, and the fans love it. There was never a bigger bond between the England team and the fans than when they had to play friendlies and real games around the country. I know, I was there. Now they're just another London club, aren't they? Oh, and look, now there's an Olympic Stadium that probably would have worked for FA Cup Finals and such. I doubt anyone would have cared much if the FA Cup and Carling Cup Final had to tour around as well.

But I guess I'm expecting too much. If Suarez is found guilty he deserves whatever punishment he gets. Why that couldn't have been done at least four weeks ago is something that's going to have to be explained to me very slowly.