According to the laws of the game, shouldn't Robin Van Persie have been sent off against Manchester United in Arsenal's 2-1 loss on Sunday? I know when it comes to yellow and red cards it's often pretty hard to keep track of all of football's strange rules. But it's widely believed that an automatic yellow card is to be shown to any player who lifts his team shirt to reveal a printed message on a tee-shirt below.

We've all seen the 'magic spray' soccer trainers use to heal injured soccer players everyone wonders what it is and given how it often causes a miraculous recovery, it must be magic.

While researching something else in the USSF Advice To Referees and IFAB Memorandums, I came across this section in the USSF 2011-2012 Laws of the Game Memorandum:

5.

I've written a number of times before about youth soccer referees not wanting to use their cards. Initially it seemed to be due to the age of players that I coached. But now that my older girls team is in high school, I haven't seen many more cards, even though I've seen plenty of fouls to warrant them from opponents AND my own players.

Common sense has prevailed.

The Dutch football federation has rescinded the red card given to AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado in the aftermath of Wednesday's pitch invasion during a cup game against Ajax.

The goalkeeper was the target of a fan who ran onto the field right at the player in the 36th minute of the match.

Luis Suárez racism ban: PFA head Gordon Taylor supports FA's decision

• Taylor backs 'very strong message' over racist abuse • Lord Herman Ouseley urges consistent tough stance Luis Suárez's eight-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra has been supported by the head of the Professional Footballers' Association as "a very strong message to the rest of the world".

Five things we learned from the Premier League this weekend | Alan Gardner, Gregg Roughley and Penny Woods

Yakubu may be Steve Kean's saviour; clear goalscoring opportunities lack clarity; Stoke carry flame at home and abroad Feed the Yak and Rovers may stay up There were boos at Ewood Park again on Saturday during Blackburn's 4-2 win against Swansea .

Andre Marriner has been appointed referee for United's game against Liverpool at Anfield this weekend.

He has previous...

1. After being shown a yellow card for a two footed challenge from behind, Steven Gerrard told Marriner to fuck off, before sticking his fingers up at him. No punishment was given.

At 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24, the temperature in Frisco, Texas is predicted to be 91 degrees. The National Weather Service says it's going to be sunny with 0% chance of rain. Really, a pleasant day on the South Oklahoma plains for any visitors who happen to have the misfortune of actually showing up in Frisco tomorrow.

Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal By Tony Attwood 1. Because as soon as Barca have him they will do the same thing with Ignasi Miquel who left Barca under similar circumstances. This really is a key point because Arsenal transferred Cesc quite properly within the laws of the game, and yet the local mayor talks [.

With all these big name clubs coming to the United States for the mid-season friendlies you may have noticed that though the Seattle Sounders play Manchester United that match is not part of the World Football Challenge. Which is a little odd. Because the WFC is a real tournament - just look. You see, last night's match between Manchester City and Vancouver Whitecaps FC mattered.

I remember once going to watch my brother play football. It was a long, long time ago and it was the sort of Scottish day that was as wet as it was cold.
The sort of day that threatens to drown a diminutive full back and turn a skinny left winger a very unhealthy shade of blue.
The sort of day that might make you despair of a nation that sends ten and eleven year old boys out to play football in such conditions.

Rumbling along quietly along in the background, the ongoing argument over whether a Great Britain team should take part in the 2012 London Olympics has been one of the slow-burning debates within British football over the last half-decade or so, but this debate ignited this afternoon after a series of statements, made in turn by the British Olympic Association, the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association and the Football Association of Wales, which already seems likely to turn into a full-blown argument.

I'm going to deviate from Arsenal for a little bit today, mainly because I'd only be covering old ground if I talked about spineless defeats and potential exits. Instead, I'm going to take a look at the doomed Respect campaign, which has been so woefully implemented both by the FA and officials since it was introduced.

As I always say, it is a game of coaches more than teams or players. Mourinho 1-1 tie vs. Barcelona in the La Liga and the victory of Copa del Rey was mainly because of the winning card: Pepe, who used every legal and illegal way to stop Messi, Villa and Xavi.
These videos explain bit of it:
Messi was lucky to not have a fracture leg
Another dirty tackle
At certain point, I thought that Pep will lose the challenge towards Mourinho in the Champion League semi-finals.

It's a pretty sad day all around. The weather here in the Sound is rainy and gloomy which matches my mood on this Monday morning. I'm sure I'm not the only soccer fan of the same mindset as it was a brutal weekend for fans of the beautiful game. The league has lost two of its most dynamic, creative players to severe injuries.

The forthcoming Olympic Games and whether a united "British" team should be allowed to play in the competition has reopened one off British football's oldest debates. Jason LeBlanc takes a look at the history of this fractious state of affairs.

The subject of a unified British team partaking in next summer's London Olympics has been broached on this site before, but with the Euro 2012 qualifier between Wales and England featuring some players that would compete together if their associations—along with those of Scotland and Northern Ireland—agreed to the matter, it feels prescient to gloss over the matter again.

OTP looks at matches that changed football's laws 1. England 1-0 Argentina (1966) This is the match where Argentina captain Antonio Rattin refused to leave the pitch after being sent-off. Suggestions that his dismissal had been lost in translation might sound like sour grapes, yet England defender Jack Charlton phoned the Wembley press office to [.

He said, he said, but he said, no he said, what he meant, he said.
Yawn and yawn again.
It seems that the laws of bloody mindedness mean that when we have an interesting Old Firm game the post mortem is so unbelievably dull and without merit it sours the whole experience for everyone.

By Anonymous

The history of Northern Ireland is, for lack of a better expression, fucking horrible. As a young man who grew up at the tail end of the Troubles I was merely seven miles removed from the worst atrocity of the conflict, Omagh.

The country has changed since then.