This infuriates me no end. I did some maths on it the other day, and a shot hit with pace from about 4m from a defender will hit him before he's even had time to react. Handball is used far too much to me, I thought it used to be that you had to move your hand towards the ball? Not just leave it anywhere other than behind your back and have the misfortune to be hit.
In Law 12 there is no mention of intent or intention to harm so that is irrelevant. Nani went in chest high with a straight leg and you will notice that just beforehand he took a glance over at Arbeloa. Nani could have shielded the ball with chest or even headed it but chose to plant his foot into the defenders chest! The referee got it right
For handball to be given the referee must decide whether the arms were in a 'natural' or 'unatural' position when the ball strikes! If the arms are raised away from the body then it is deemed intentional but with everything else in football it is all down to interpritation!
I agree with JWM, absolute defo RED card, Ferdinand should have had one as well for sarcastically clapping in the ref's face at the end of the game, and just for the hell of it so should Red nose, "so angry he couldn't speak"!!! Never stopped him before, and what if that would have happened to Nani, Fergie would have found his lost voice and told anyone who would listen that it was a RED card tackle!! F******g hypocrite!
If you take intent out of the equation then you would end up with 3 a side by the end of the game. Everytime you jump for a ball your elbows go out. If you hit an opponent accidentally it is not a red card - if intentionally it is. If you try an overhead kick your foot will be dangerously high but it is not a red card if you kick an opponent on the follow though. The Nani situation was similar. He couldn't reach it to chest it - he could hardly reach it with his outstretched leg. He was trying to bring the ball under control - how could he do that with a flying header? To me it was the same type of situation as the player who took a foot in the face at the weekend following a failed overhead kick. As is usual with many major decisions the ref got it disgracefully wrong and I am sure that I am not the one who is beginning to wonder why. The News today described him as an Insurance Salesman so he is not even a full time Ref but was put in charge of the match where the world would stop and watch. How much would it take - no I had better not go down that route.
I think it's shocking how FIFA have failed to issue clarifications on the rules. The 'rules' are incredibly open to interpretation, leading to discrepancies in the standards applied by refs. Whilst you can't mitigate for everything, they'd be able to take so much crap out of the game if they wanted to. Like the wresting in the box before a dead ball situation, say we're not having it, instruct refs to book then send off players for it, and it'd be gone in a month. Blatter is a dinosaur though and desperately needs moving on for football to sort itself out.
How often have we heard this sort of comment: "There was no intention to hurt the player; the tackler was going for the ball. It was just unfortunate that he was late and he went through the player and caught him. Oh yes, what a shame the tackle broke the guy's leg, ended his career, meant he was never the same player again ......." Doesn't wash; the rules are right to exclude intention in these sorts of cases. An overhead kick which "accidentally" results in another player being kicked in the face is dangerous play and should be penalised (and almost certainly would be in any country other than this one). It doesn't matter that Nani was trying to bring the ball under control with his foot; if you can't bring the ball under control without engaging in dangerous play, you shouldn't try to bring it under control in that way. In this country we get hot under the collar about wrestling in the penalty area, which as far as I know has never caused serious injury to anything but a player's pride, yet we applaud actions which off the field would count as common assault or even grievous bodily harm.
Exactly. If Arbeloa had caught Nani and received a red card, we'd now be listening to the media declaring what a fantastic game the ref had and how brave it was to make a big call like that in such a high profile game. On a lighter note, just seen this on the BBC site http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-21687292
It seems quite clear to me that this thread has split directly along the fault line of Pro v Anti United sentiment.I used to dislike the club intensely in the olden days but I think that Ferguson has achieved more than Chelsea and City put together without resort to the kind of spending that they have.When I used to follow motor racing the Le mans 24 hours used to have an Index of Performance trophy.I have no doubt that had we such a thing in football it would be a straight race between United and Arsenal.
If you look at the replays in real time the ref can't be criticised as it was a set of studs in the chest. Even if you look at all of the slow motion replays I think the ref can easily justify his decision. Bottom line is that it is a judgement call on the ref's part - if he considers it dangerous then it is a red card under the letter of the law. Personally I though it merited a yellow rather than red as I thought that Nani was genuinely blindsided by Arbeloa and it was a complete accident in the same way that the Spanish keeper punched Vidic in the face accidentally - must be dangerous play punching where a player has his head but unless there is intent keepers never get penalised for this. I think that it is a pity that the game will be remembered for this rather than Modric's goal or the class shown by both Ronaldo and Mourinho in victory and I completely with the other posters that Ferdinand should have got a red post match for going right up to the ref and sarcastically applauding him.
