A foul needs to be serious for sending off

Earlier this season Howard Wilkinson gave up a position of some influence at the FA. to again take on one of the most insecure jobs in the country, that of a football club manager. A club, Sunderland, struggling to maintain its Premiership status. So what did he leam during his time at the FA that might help him in the hurly-burly of football management? 

On the basis of his television interview after Sunderland's FA Cup defeat against Nationwide League opponents, Watford, it wasn't clarity of thought or greater understanding of the Laws of the Game.
'We were cheated out of the game' he said as he talked about the penalty which was awarded against Sunderland player Jason McAteer. 'I'll give you that the referee was in a good position to see and that he is within his rights to make the decision. The question I have to ask,' he continued, 'is if Jason McAteer used his elbow, which is the reason the referee has given for awarding the penalty,
why wasn't he sent off?' 

Although it may sound that he was advocating that his player should have been sent off, he was really trying to query the referee's decision. All he succeeded in doing, was illustrating his own muddled knowledge of the laws of the game, by suggesting that the foul and a sending off are mutually inclusive.

Law 12: Fouls and Misconduct lists ten direct free kick (or penalty) offences and seven offences for which a player can be sent off. Only one offence appears directly in both lists, that of spitting. A direct free kick is awarded if a player spits at an opponent and a player is sent off if he spits at anyone. We can therefore see that committing a direct free kick or penalty offence does not necessarily mean a sending-off.

In the Jason McAteer's incident, he backed into Watford player Helguson, using his elbow, or indeed his whole arm, to knock him over as the ball was played into the penalty area. When I say 'used his elbow', it wasn't a Martin Keown or Justin Fashanu smash into the opponent's face. As one newspaper reporter described it: 'McAteer clearly pushed Helguson'. Just a foul then. To become Serious Foul Play, for which sending-off would have been the punishment, McAteer would have used, in the terms of the law, 'excessive force'. Clearly he didn't, so the referee got it right. 'It wasn't just the penalty,' said Howard Wilkinson, 'it was also that the referee made the kick be taken again when our goalkeeper saved it. 

I accept that Sorenson was off his line before the ball was kicked, but you are always seeing that. I can't remember,' he continued, 'the last time I saw a kick having to be retaken'. It is true that on some occasions goalkeepers have moved and got away with it. 

From personal experience I know that it is very difficult to call when the goalkeeper decides to go a split second before the ball is kicked. On this occasion, the goalkeeper was a yard and a half in front of his line before the kick was taken, narrowing the angle for the kicker. It would have been a travesty if the save had been allowed to stand. Because some other keeper, at some other game, at some other time got away with it, doesn't make this assistant referee wrong.

Let's go back to Howard Wilkinson's muddled thinking. He admits the referee was in good position to see the offence and accepts his right to make the decision. He agrees that his goalkeeper moved off his line before the kick was taken in violation of the law, which then requires a retake because he saved it. Tell us Mr Wilkinson, where does the cheating come in?

Dick Sawdon Smith

© R Sawdon Smith 2003

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