I have to admit that I was shocked and stunned by just how disturbingly eager the football world was to vilify Carlos Tevez.

What if this whole thing was only amisunderstanding?The two men only share broken English as a common language- James Calvert

Although I doubt we will ever know exactly what was said on that bench in Munich last Tuesday night, everyone involved in the game seems to want the Manchester City player hung, drawn and quartered.

Roberto Mancini claims Tevez refused to play when he asked him to come on as a substitute. Tevez insists he did nothingof the sort and it was all amisunderstanding.

So whatever happened to the concept of innocent until proven guilty?

When you consider the fact that the Argentine desperately wants to leave Manchester and add that to the fact that he is spending most games warming the bench at the moment, I think it would be understandable if the relationship between Tevez and Mancini is somewhat strained.

And on that basis I admit I wouldn’t put the idea of Tevez refusing to play against Bayern beyond the realms of possibility. He’s a footballer, he’s rich, he’s egotistical and he quite possibly did chuck his proverbial teddy out of the pram.

But I ask this of the commentators, writers, pundits, ex-players and officials who have been so quick to jump on the anti-Tevez bandwagon with such passion: Where is your proof?

At the time of writing, Tevez is continuing to deny he refused to play. He is claiming he just said he didn’t need to do any more warming up.

And what if that’s true? What if, no matter how unlikely, this whole thing was only a misunderstanding that has been totally blown out of proportion?

On that basis, can the treatment the player is getting be considered fair? Is it right for people, some of them supposedly intelligent and many of them influential, to be calling for Tevez to get a lifetime ban from football?

Absolutely and categorically not.

As regulars will know I’m the first to agree that many modern footballers are overpaid, spoilt and decidedly unpleasant people. But that doesn’t automatically make them wrong.

If it is proved, and I mean conclusively proved, that Tevez did refuse to play, then he should be given the strongest possible punishment by his club, the FA and Fifa itself. His actions would be simply unacceptable.

But as things stand, all we have is one man’s word against another’s. Two men who, incidentally, only share brokenEnglish as a common language.

Frankly, all these holier-than-thou, saintly people who are baying for Tevez to be crucified make me decidedly uncomfortable.

I think in legal speak, in order to find someone guilty, you need to be certain beyond reasonable doubt. And I wonder, if you were to put this bloodthirsty group on a jury, how many of them would be able to put their hand on their heart and say they were absolutely positive of Tevez’s guilt?

But that doesn’t matter does it? Let’s not let the possible truth of the situation get in the way of a good witch-hunt.

Football commentators have been waiting for someone on whom they can take out their frustrations against footballers in general.

And it looks like they have found their perfect scapegoat…

The TV times

Last week Sir Alex Ferguson hit out at television companies which he claims have too much control over the modern game.

And let’s be honest, he’sperfectly right.

I remember the old days when Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. (4 p.m. for us) was the time when most, if not all, league matches were played.

You could set your watch by it.

Today, however, kick-off times are absolutely all over the place, and teams can play at any point from lunchtime on Saturday to late Monday evening.

One of the benefits of this, of course, is that we viewers get to watch so much more livefootball, sometimes up to six or seven games over a weekend.

Having said that, I can understand Sir Alex’s anger about scheduling that can, onoccasion, see the top teams’ programmes shuffled around ridiculously just to accommodate the cameras.

However, I think the thing Sir Alex was not taking into consideration, or at least not fully appreciating, is how television has been responsible for revitalising the game in England.

Before Sky won the rights to show matches, football was in a bit of a lull and had lost a lot of its appeal to the masses. Sky’s innovative approach to broadcasting and its blanket coverage of the top league helped bring the game out of the doldrums.

And let’s not forget how much money Sky and other broadcasters have invested in the game, massive chunks of which have gone to the clubs and enabled them to live the luxurious lives they currently lead.

As I said, Sir Alex has a point. Absolutely. But I’m sure at the end of the day if you gave him the choice between having regular matches or tens of millions of pounds in the bank, he would see that only one way makes sense.

Football did sell its soul to the broadcasting devil a couple of decades ago. But so far, all that devil has asked in return is a few irregular kick-off times.

Surely that’s a relatively small price to pay…

P.S. Let’s not forget which medium Sir Alex used to get this message across: a television interview.

Cristiano the bashful

I bet a lot of you thought I had missed out on Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent attempt to officially become the planet’s most self-important person.

But I didn’t.

In case you missed it, the Real Madrid star was speaking after his side’s Champion’s League match against Dinamo Zagreb during which he was constantly jeered by opposition supporters.

He said they disliked him because he is “rich, handsome and a great player. People are envious of me. I don’t have any other explanation”.

So that’s it? That’s the reason? And there was me thinking people don’t like him because he is conceited, arrogant, cocky, narcissistic, self-important, vain and smarmy.

I’m sure describing himself in such an understated manner will help endear him to the masses and make him one of the most popular players on the planet. Not.

Oh well, what the man lacks in modesty he more than makes up for in neck…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade