Must have missed that eleventh rule I saw "trips or attempts to trip an opponent" which could be argued. However, the contact wasn't enough to cause Benteke to trip and the attempt to trip wasn't there since the defender attempted to pull out.
"A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:" tackles an opponent
Except it clearly was enough to trip Benteke, and there's no rule about being let off if you make it look like you're trying to pull out but don't actually pull out
Every decision taken during the game is in the referee's opinion. That's what they're paid to do. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. In this instance his decision was formed when his assistant 'brilliantly', in the words of Poll, spotted that the defender's knee had made contact with benteke's foot but without any contact whatsoever on the ball. Penalty - vindicated by TV replays and the laws of the game. 'It's only minimal and it needed TV replays to confirm it, and we are at home and it's the last minute of the game' may be Pardew's (and Uniturd wum's temporary) rules, but they're not the rules of the game. Do you want a job on the Independent?
Give up, guys. Greez will never admit to being wrong no matter how clear it is to everyone else. Must be hell to live with.
Bet you went on RAWK to say there wasn't enough contact for Valencia to go down with this minimal contact as well. Not.
Next are players allowed to punch each other in the face so long at "it wasn't hard enough to deck them"
Go back and find the match thread on here for that game. There will be plenty of you that are claiming yesterday's to be a legitimate penalty that said the one above wasn't. #tintedspecs
Why would you need to put the 'feelings' of the player in the rules when, as TV replys clearly prove ('brilliantly), that the assistant saw and alerted the referee to an infringement that is in the rules, and is not the subjective hotch-potch you refer to?
This "there was contact" argument that's come into the game in recent years is a joke in itself. It's meant to be a contact sport ffs! At 6'4" and about 13st+, there is no way that "contact" would take Benteke off his feet. He wasn't sprinting or preforming some some of ballet type spin/trick either.
