Debunking the greatest myth in football.

Wengerballfouls Football 4 Comments

There are few things in football that really winds me up more than pundits and commentators who have no clue when it comes to the rules of the game.

One of the most pervasive myths in English football is the “he got the ball first, so it’s not a foul” nonsense I keep hearing in every single football game I watch.

The tackle which lead to Walcott’s 3 month lay-off is a prime example of the ignorance of the English football fraternity.

The laws of the game state that,

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:

• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
• jumps at an opponent
• charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent

Notice that there is no mention of winning the ball or not, as long as a tackle is careless, reckless or using excessive force, then it’s a foul. So it is down to the referee to determine what is careless, if in his opinion it wasn’t at least careless then it’s no foul.

So how do you define “careless”, well the referees handbook defines careless as follows.

“Careless” means that the player has shown a lack of attention or
consideration when making a challenge or that he acted without precaution.

No further disciplinary sanction is needed if a foul is judged to be careless

Ask yourself if Ridgewell acted with consideration or precaution in that challenge then let me know if it wasn’t a foul.

Now that we agree it was a foul did it warrant a card? Again going by the referees’ guidelines it was at least a yellow.

“Reckless” means that the player has acted with complete disregard to the
danger to, or consequences for, his opponent

A player who plays in a reckless manner must be cautioned.

It is clear that the tackle fits with FIFA’s description of Reckless perfectly. There was a blatant and obvious disregard for the consequencies of the tackle, so yes it was reckless.

Surely Ridgewell may have deserved a yellow, but no more. Again you may be wrong on this point, and again it comes down to ignorance of the rules.

“Using excessive force” means that the player has far exceeded the necessary
use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent.

A player who uses excessive force must be sent off.

It can be argued that there wasn’t “excessive force” in this case, another player might not have been hurt by the same tackle.

However there was no need to go in with this amount of force in the first place, at the velocity and angle Ridgewell came in there was always going to be one outcome, taking out the ball and the man.

A slightly different angle could have seen Ridgewell win the ball cleanly, but that wouldn’t have been the Birmingham way, would it?

Posted on 20 Oct 2009, 1200hr Tweet -The discussion is closed