UEFA's Suspension Tightrope Is Crazy

Six players will head into tonight's Champions League semifinal second leg walking on egg shells, knowing they are one booking away from missing the final in Madrid.

It's a crazy situation, but one you might say was justified if the players in question had picked up five or six yellow cards in the tournament. The truth is they haven't.

Barring Barcelona's Gerard Pique, who has been booked four times and already served a ban, the remaining five players—Pique's teammate Dani Alves, and Inter Milan quartet Maicon, Walter Samuel, Javier Zanetti, and Samuel Eto'o—have each been booked just twice in the whole competition. Suspending someone for collecting three yellow cards in 11 games is unnecessarily harsh, and the issue needs addressing ahead of next season's tournament.

Inter's Brazilian full-back Maicon hasn't been booked in Europe's top club competition since October, and considering some of the bizarre refereeing decisions this season, he is just one bad decision away from missing the biggest game in club football.

Indeed Maicon's case looks ridiculously harsh when you consider that he's only made 13 fouls in the whole tournament, yet he faces the prospect of missing the final against Bayern Munich if he sees yellow at the Nou Camp and Inter qualify. This could have an impact on Inter's Champions League odds, too.

Not only are the players and Inter fans losing out, but the game as a whole is the loser. Football supporters want to see the best players playing in the biggest games and an accumulation of three bookings in 11 games should not result in a ban for the final.

Serious foul play or violent conduct should obviously be punished via suspensions, but the yellow card threshold needs changing or perhaps they could take note of the Football World Cup, where yellow cards are wiped out after the group stage.