The Jewish Chronicle

It’s time for referees to get tougher

September 17, 2009 16:02
2 min read

As usual, there was plenty of falling about in Europe this week. Alexandre Alphonse, a French striker playing for FC Zurich, certainly seemed to have worked a penalty against Real Madrid, when he changed direction with his left foot to make it appear as if he had been tripped by goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Grafite, a Brazilian playing for Wolfsburg, got the merest tug of a shirt from Deividas Semberas of CSKA Moscow, and went down as if assassinated by sniper fire.

Yet a shirt pull is a foul, however exaggerated the fall, and Casillas did come out in such a way that Alphonse may have had to change direction to avoid him, therefore losing control of the ball. These days every nuance of an incident can be analysed frame by frame, and in high definition but in real time, it looked as if Casillas clipped him, not the other way around. Either way, had UEFA not retreated from reassessing matches with an eye out for the fakers by clearing Eduardo of Arsenal, footballers could now be queuing around the block in Nyon. Yet just about every case would be a matter of conjecture, claim and counter-claim.

Then there is Mathieu Flamini’s tackle on Stephane Mbia of Marseille. Now that is something that deserves a replay. It will not get one, of course, because the incident was seen and dealt with by referee Claus Bo Larsen who showed Flamini, formerly of Arsenal, now with AC Milan, a yellow card. That is not enough. Flamini went in with complete abandon, two-footed, both off the floor. Mbia looked like he was up to no good, too, but that may well have been because he saw what was coming. He could not avoid it, though, and Flamini struck him high, and late. Mbia needed treatment, but continued, and Milan won 2-1. By Wednesday morning, the incident was ancient history.

Yet Flamini could have broken a man’s leg with that challenge. At least he could have changed the game, at worst, he could have ended Mbia’s career at 23. Mbia is a Cameroon international and a £10.4m summer acquisition for Marseille. Personally and professionally he deserves protection. These are the moments that need review; not some unsolvable mystery with men in suits arguing over how much contact is necessary to make a player fall over.

The issue of diving has long been overplayed. The last national newspaper I worked for and the one I write for now have both run campaigns aimed at eradicating it but, for me, tackles like that one by Flamini are the real evil. The cheats are rumbled by television replays and stop getting the decisions, as Eduardo has already found, because that was definitely a penalty when he was knocked down by Glen Johnson during Croatia’s match with England.

It is the horror tackles that need to be re-examined, but UEFA will not do it in most cases because they argue the referee has already dealt with the incident. Yet if Larson looked at Flamini’s tackle again he would surely concede it deserved a straight red. So justice was not done. Why can’t UEFA give referees the option to upgrade for particularly dangerous tackles? Not for the first time, priorities seem awry.