PLAY THE ADVANTAGE

So, by now you’ve seen the split-second video of Wojchiech Szczesny responding to being red carded with the universal symbol of what you can do with yourself.

If you haven’t, here you go:

This caused no end of pearl clutching amongst the press. No one was quite sure at whom the gesture was directed. It could have been toward Nicola Rizzoli for carding him in the first place (though he admirably walked off the pitch without arguing with the ref). It could have been in response to something said by the fourth official.

Or it just could have been his way of saying “Here are all the f__ks I give.”

In any event, the assumption that he would have at least another match added to his ban for the gesture seems to be unfounded.

You see, in order for UEFA to take action, the match official (Rizzoli) has to include the incident in his report. Rizzoli was understood not to have seen it, but he can still choose to include it since it was caught on video.

For whatever reason, Rizzoli did not, whether because he didn’t feel he could not having seen it himself, or because he was saying “Here are all the f__ks I give.”

At the end of the day, though, Szczesny gets a pass, at least from UEFA. Arsenal plans to deal with the matter internally.