The FA has finally lost the plot and set a dangerous precedent by not banning Macmanaman for his horror tackle on Sunday! I thought the FA was meant to be upholding the laws of the game but instead it has given the green light for more potential career threatening challenges to go unpunished in the future! As a referee myself I am furious about this and I might just call it a day. An absolutely shocking decision that further undermines the game and opens it up to ridcule. In parks football that type of challenge could have resulted in criminal proceedings being brought against anyone who made that type of challenge! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21849733
You are completely right JWM that I cannot argue with but if the FA were to start reviewing all decisions (Re refereeing as they put it) it could well open a can of worms and every manager in the Premier league will be screaming for suspensions and bans every single week. It also asks the questions of who is actually refereeing? especially if the FA are able to hand out disciplinary action if someone disagrees with a Referees decsion... Imagine the likes of Fergie and Wenger on MOTD every single week That said in this circumstance the FA have made themselves look a bit silly and backing the Referee is all well and good when there is a questionable incident or a genuine mistake but quite frankly you won't see any more horrifically dirty fouls in the league for years to come and probably not since that man Roy Keane tried to tear Haaland's leg off
Well there definitely needs to be a change in the way things are done if something like that can go unpunished. There has to be a rule whereby even if the officials have seen but did nothing then retrospective action can be taken in extreme cases such as this one.
Further calls for the use of technology in the game to be used?? Is there not an official that sits behind a screen watching the same view that people watching on TV & streams get? If there is, they should be consulted. If there isn't there damned well should be one, certainly in the PL where every game is televised live so there is no excuse for not doing it. It's just not right that 4 people in an officiating capacity either missed it or did not see what really happened.
I cannot understand the FAâs obsession with leaving the ref and his pals to their devices where players and actual in-game decisions are concerned, but are like avenging angels on every other matter; regardless of whether the officials have seen, heard or ruled on it. Did the officials not see and deal with the two Newcastle coaches that have been retrospectively punished further than they were and therefore âretrospectively refereedâ â something the FA have hysterics over the mere idea of when players or in-game decision are the subject. Ditto manager's ante/post game comments â who are these suits at the FA to deny freedom of speech and expression? Why does Zaha get banned and fined for a provocative gesture, but the FA hide behind technicalities to maintain this ârefereeâs decision is sacrosanct and retrospective refereeing is the worst thing in the world but only when itâs convenient for usâ cant in order to excuse wimpish inaction over McManaman et al? What is more provocative to the crowd or more likely to bring the game into disrepute? Is it allowing potentially career ending tackles to go unpunished, blatant cheating likewise and shocking, game changing decisions etc all to be casually tolerated? Or is it what the FA deem to be important, inflammatory and disreputable: managers expressing themselves honestly over a ref (or whoever); extra technology; coaches getting angry and so on. The FA donât know their arses from their elbows.
Excellent point you make there Jonah Double standards The FA should be protecting the safety of players as their No1 priority and by not punishing the player retrospectively they have failed and now lay open to a dangerous precedent in the future. I just hope that the lad quickly recovers and is back playing without any long term damage being done.
I've watched the "tackle" over and over again, and i genuinely feel that McManaman went 100% for the ball, and only just missed it. Are you therefore going to punish every genuine attempt to get the ball, which unfortunately results in a bad injury? Is it not double standards that we want to see football returned to the good old days when defenders, and midfielders made hard, bone crunching challenges? I agree blatant fouls, two footed tackles, tackles from behind should be punished accordingly, but i don't feel every player who makes a genuine attempt to get the ball and only just misses, should be punished severely. If that is the case, then players will be too scared to make tackles, and i also feel it will breed more cheats who fake an injury and roll about like they've been shot. I think that if the referee honestly thought it wasn't a red card, then we have to accept that. Why do we have to constantly whinge and moan at the referee for every decision he makes that we don't agree with? This is a mans game, and the sooner we eradicate this mamby pamby liberal view of the game, the better.
Stretchy that's all very well but as a referee myself I can assure you that in the laws of the game intent doesn't come into it! The Wigan player showed brutality in the challenge and endangered his opponent and whether he intended to do it or not is neither here nor there! It is a common misconception that intent has to be proven.
I think the argument is that the ref saw the incident and didnt punish it, in which case the FA should stick to their own rules.
When retrospective decisions are taken it's to stop people conning the officials when their backs are turned. This is not a case of that so retrospective punishment whether the ref got it wrong or right (he got it wrong) is not appropriate. By the way, by the same token I don't think players should be able to appeal against cautions and dismissals.
I kind of see where you are both coming from. They guy IMO I think made a genuine attempt to go for the ball but probably should've been sent off. The intent thing puzzles me because in that sense the Nani red card was definitely a red card, although IMO it wasn't even a yellow. There are so many tackles that are potentially dangerous, but if u stopped those we wouldn't have a contact game at all. IMO i think intent should be included more, it seems that players get punished less for purposefully cheating but players who slightly mistime a tackle but are genuinely going for the ball get punished. I also don't think that a 2 footed tackle is necessarily a dangerous one, it's just common sense really. I don't think McManaman should be vilified because if u look i think he was genuinely going for the ball but like i say it probably was a sending off. It's like Diaby on Terry, when he kicked him in the head, there was no intent there but if we're going on that, it was a really dangerous tackle and he should've been sent off!! One thing for sure, is it certainly isn't easy to be a referee!!
What was even more despicable is the fact that McManaman didn't even stop to check if the player was OK afterwards and simply carried on playing! Disgusting behaviour and clearly goes to prove some kind of intent. I wonder what the FA would have done if the player who made that challenge was Luis Suarez?
Mark Halsey has apparently been receiving death threats and Graham Poll has stuck the boot in and called for Halsey to step down, which is absolutely disgusting.
I heard that on TalkSport and wondered what on earth Poll was playing at... I agree that questions should be asked about him missing the incident but I thought Poll well and truly overstepped the mark. He was a very good ref himself but he certainly wasn't faultless, Particularly after his 3 yellow cards incident.
The problem is that we see terrible tackles go unpunished and innocuous attempts to win the ball, even making contact with the ball, result in a red being brandished. We have goals given that are offside and we have goals that cross the line not given. It's part and parcel of football, we entrust the officials to make the decisions and if they are consistently underperforming they don't get to referee at professional level. To me, we are not looking for every decision to be right, we just want refereeing to be fair, sporting and integral. I don't doubt Halsey's integrity for one moment so if a decision is proved to be wrong then get on with it. It isn't for the FA to get involved in every incident or we'll end up with a complete farce on our hands.
I've always thought that 1 of the biggest problems with the FA is that they back their referees decisions every time - no matter how ridiculous. Everyone in life (including referees, their assistants & even me) makes mistakes. I have no problem with this & there was a player directly between referee & challenge. However, to not punish the player retrospectively is a nonsense. The FA bang on about their "respect" campaign but I'm afraid its a 2 way street & those in charge of the game must respect the players as well
