We’d never see that in England
THE ENGLISH gave the world football - but while other countries play as well as us they don't do it the same way.
It seems the Beautiful Game suddenly turned ugly this week with that horrible, disgraceful rubbish we witnessed in Madrid.
I'd been excited all day in anticipation of the Real Madrid v Barcelona Champions League semi-final. It was going to be a real treat.
But afterwards the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.
Play-acting, fouling, baiting the referee - cheating, basically. The players lost the plot.
And it wasn't the best of nights for the managers, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, either.
People I know who absolutely love football turned off their TVs in disgust at what was going on. I honestly believe you would never see a game like that in England. English crowds wouldn't tolerate that sort of behaviour from players of the opposition, or indeed their own team.
And, as a manager, I certainly would not want to be involved in any of that rubbish.
Real and Barca are two fantastic football teams with two great coaches. But everyone went into meltdown on Wednesday night. It was horrible.
We saw similar events in Scotland not so long ago when Rangers played Celtic. I think there were around a dozen bookings and a sending off.
It's as if the players felt the need to get booked, sent off or attack the referee to either show off to the fans or to prove they were committed and involved in the game.
But that was nothing to do with football.