'No problem between Rooney and me' - Ronaldo
BERLIN, July 3 (Reuters) - Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo said on Monday there was no animosity between him and Wayne Rooney despite the furore over the winger's actions when the England forward was red carded in their World Cup quarter-final.
'There is no problem at all between me and Rooney,' Ronaldo told the website of the Gestifute agency, which represents him. 'At the end of the game, we exchanged a series of text messages just as we had on the day before.
'This reinforces that I have a fine relationship with Rooney. Between the two of us, everything is clear,' added Ronaldo who plays with Rooney at Manchester United.
In the second half of Saturday's match with England, Ronaldo rushed 40 metres to the referee, apparently to demand a card for Rooney who had battled his way through two players and trod on Ricardo Carvalho's groin as he tried to disentangle himself.
Rooney was sent off by Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo and Ronaldo was captured by TV cameras winking at his bench as the England forward walked off the pitch.
'I complained to the referee about the foul but I didn't ask for a red card,' the Portugal winger said after the match.
'How is it possible that I would help to get him sent off? I am not the referee with the power to send off anyone I want, nor do I have the ability to convince him to show cards,' he added on Monday.
'The referee produced the red card because he thought that he had to, and my participation in that was absolutely zero.'
Ronaldo had also feigned a head-butt towards Rooney seconds before the match kicked off as he was walking past his club mate to take up his position on the left wing.
British media reported on Monday that the England forward was furious with Ronaldo and attempted to charge into Portugal's dressing room to confront the winger after the match.
But Ronaldo said Rooney had told him to ignore the English press saying 'they only want to stir things up'.
'Statements have appeared as if they were from him, saying that he didn't want to play with me in Manchester,' said Ronaldo. 'That's not what he wants. Of course he wants to (play with me). This is absolutely false, he said so himself...'
'In fact, he didn't just send me congratulations for going forward in the World Cup, he also told me we have a great team, and if we carry on as we have, we will get a long way. He wasn't angry with me, or about anything that happened.'
Ronaldo, who faced England after recovering from a thigh injury inflicted by a high tackle in the second-round match with Netherlands, is still having ice treatment on the leg but says he will be ready for Wednesday's semi-final in Munich.
bulljive said:apparently Rooney has told british tabloids he will split ronaldo in two if he sees him at training camp. I have a feeling ronaldo is going to get that transfer he is looking for.
canucklehead said:Here is a good link on the whole Ronaldo/Rooney issue. It's a clip from the BBC booth with Alan Shearer sitting in. there's been a bunch written about how Ronaldo feined a headbutt towards Rooney prior to kickoff, but in seeing it here, it looked more friendley then anything. As for the "wink" to the dugout, it's here too. Pretty low on his part, I think. But everytime I look at the clip of the stamp, it looks as though he (Rooney) knows where he's putting his boot and the referee stops play immed. Ronaldo runs in with his 2 cents worth and Rooney pushes him away. Ref blows again and now pulls Rooney aside. In all, I think when he blew his whistle initially, he was running the whole thing through his head, possibly trying to get insight over the headset from the AR's and was going to rule "Violent Conduct". But then with the push, things are flaring up and he has to get control immed. so it is then he gets on to calling Rooney over. Just becasue he initally takes his time to dealing with the situation, doesn't infer that his decsion to show red was made with Ronaldo's plea (as British media want us to believe) or the push; it's just the manner in which he chose to control the situation. He doesn't need to fly in like some officials do and have the card out as he's runnig towards to incedent. He's calm and controlled throughout the entire game.
Your thoughts alikira as I notice you are also a referee. If there are other referee's reading this, your perspective would be helpful.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ylMqeyMgsxs&search=ronaldo%20headbutt
canucklehead said:Here is a good link on the whole Ronaldo/Rooney issue. It's a clip from the BBC booth with Alan Shearer sitting in. there's been a bunch written about how Ronaldo feined a headbutt towards Rooney prior to kickoff, but in seeing it here, it looked more friendley then anything. As for the "wink" to the dugout, it's here too. Pretty low on his part, I think. But everytime I look at the clip of the stamp, it looks as though he (Rooney) knows where he's putting his boot and the referee stops play immed. Ronaldo runs in with his 2 cents worth and Rooney pushes him away. Ref blows again and now pulls Rooney aside. In all, I think when he blew his whistle initially, he was running the whole thing through his head, possibly trying to get insight over the headset from the AR's and was going to rule "Violent Conduct". But then with the push, things are flaring up and he has to get control immed. so it is then he gets on to calling Rooney over. Just becasue he initally takes his time to dealing with the situation, doesn't infer that his decsion to show red was made with Ronaldo's plea (as British media want us to believe) or the push; it's just the manner in which he chose to control the situation. He doesn't need to fly in like some officials do and have the card out as he's runnig towards to incedent. He's calm and controlled throughout the entire game.
Your thoughts alikira as I notice you are also a referee. If there are other referee's reading this, your perspective would be helpful.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ylMqeyMgsxs&search=ronaldo headbutt
Ronaldo cleared over Rooney red card
Referee Horacio Elizondo insists Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo did not influence his decision to send off England striker Wayne Rooney in Saturday's World Cup quarter-final.
Manchester United forward Rooney appeared to stamp on Ricardo Carvalho after an hour of the match, which England went on to lose after a penalty shoot-out.
Ronaldo infuriated his United club colleague by calling for referee Elizondo to punish Rooney and the Liverpudlian pushed his Red Devils team-mate in anger.
But Argentinian Elizondo has confirmed the fiery Rooney was dismissed for the original foul.
He told The Times: 'It was violent play and therefore he got a red card.
'People can say what they want (about Ronaldo) but this had absolutely no influence.
'In general I don't pay much attention to that sort of thing because I don't care about the pressure on my shoulders during a match.
'For me it was a clear red card, so I didn't react to the Portuguese players. There was pushing and shoving on both sides but for me it wasn't a reason to caution anybody.'
Regs said:Let's just disagree to disagree.
The red was for the push. The 'stomp' to the groin looks really bad because everyone is seeing it 100 times in super-slow-mo. Watch the ref as everything unfolds. The truth is in the yorkshire pudding.
LFC2 said:Referee only reacts after the push. Up to that point everything relatively calm.