Naughty boys in EPL and MLS

Discipline in matches is an issue all around the world. So is the tricky and often unequal efforts at dispensation of justice, it seems.

Eduardo, Arsenal’s faller and faker extraordinaire, may be suspended or may not be, depending on which day it is. Here’s how the Times UK puts it, layered into that quintessentially tongue-in-cheek British flair: "One minute, the sport’s European governing body awards Eduardo da Silva, the Arsenal striker, ten marks out of ten for tumbling and hands him a two-match suspension; the next, it deems the evidence inconclusive and that he should be exonerated." Here’s the 411 on Eduardo and the fickle FA.

Emmanuel Adebayor, the Man City man who recently made his way north from London’s famed Arsneal, should be so lucky. The FA has double-dog charged Adebayor for his stamp-and-vamp in City’s 4-2 win Saturday over Arsenal. (I’m gonna trademark "stamp-and-vamp," but I don’t know how to make the little trademark thingy on my keyboard.)

If you didn’t see it, the Togo striker ran the length of the field to celebrate a goal in front of Arsenal fans, a serious breach of etiquette in addition to being a douchebaggy thing to do. And speaking of d-bag doings, Adebayor also took the opportunity to stomp on his old Arsenal mate, Robin van Persie, in the same match. Nice.

But, as I said, they get mad over here, too. And depending upon who "they" might be, MLS might or might not break out rule book and go to whippin’ somebody with it.

It’s going to be mighty interesting to see what MLS does about a little situation that happened out in Los Angeles last week in the final minutes of that ridiculous 6-3 beat down Dallas put on Los Angeles.

Right at the end, Landon Donovan kicked David Ferreira. Hard. Made no attempt for the ball. In fairness, it was wildly out of character for Donovan. But it happened. The U.S. international lost his cool.

Then, according to Dallas players, he really, really lost his cool. As in, he slapped or perhaps attempted to slap Ferreira. Shortly after, David Beckham joined the fray. He most definitely put his hands on Dallas’ Daniel Hernandez. We have photographic evidence, as the picture was splashed across the ESPN Soccernet front for Soccer in the United States.

And putting your hands up in someone’s face is a definite no-no according to MLS rules. Why, even Hernandez knows so – and he’s only been back in MLS for one game after a few years of performance in Mexico.

Here’s what he told Andrea Canales of Goal.com, who was Johnny on the spot and got all the goods: "I just saw they were having some words," Hernandez told Canales, referring to Donovan and Ferreira. "Landon raised his hand and tried to slap David. He definitely made contact, so I hope the league looks at that, because that was a slap in the face. He definitely made contact."

Hmmm. Would the league really suspend Donovan, ahead of a high-profile meeting this weekend against Toronto in Los Angeles, smack in the middle of such a stacked and packed playoff race? And what about Beckham and his neck-wringing ways?

It’s about to get hot in the kitchen for Major League Soccer’s disciplinary committee. We should know one way or the other later this week.