Eduardo dive ban scrapped in Uefa U-turn
ARSENAL striker Eduardo last night declared himself happy that “the truth” had come out after European chiefs Uefa performed a remarkable U-turn and overturned his two-match ban for diving.
The Croatia international’s tumble over Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc during last month’s Champions League play-off clash, which Arsenal won 5-1 on aggregate, earned him a penalty but provoked outcry among Scottish supporters and officials.
Uefa reacted to the storm by charging Eduardo with deceiving the referee and issuing a two-match suspension – an unprecedented measure that led Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to accuse the organisation of conducting a “witch-hunt”.
But Uefa’s appeals body yesterday accepted the Gunners’ protests and threw out the initial verdict, saying it was not convinced that the forward had cheated in winning the spot-kick. And Eduardo, who is now available for tomorrow’s Champions League trip to Standard Liege and the visit of Olympiacos later this month, believes justice has finally been done.
“I’m very pleased that we have finally arrived at the truth. All we needed to do was to prove what happened and we have managed to do that,” said the 26-year-old, who also gave his version of the incident.
“As soon as I had the ball I headed towards goal at full speed. I was very close to the Celtic keeper and felt contact on my foot and then lost my balance. I know perhaps more than anyone else that when you have contact at speed it can be dangerous. I just want to say that I’m a fair player. I’m not the type of player who needs to be dishonest to score goals.”
Arsenal welcomed Uefa’s climbdown in a statement, saying: “We were able to show that there was contact between the goalkeeper and Eduardo and that the decision of the Uefa disciplinary body should be annulled.”