On BBC Match of the Day 2 recently, when a player was punished for a tackle, the pundits said they were worried that tackling was being eased out of the game by changes in the
Laws of the Game.
I wonder what those pundits would have said last week after the horrific injury to one of Arsenal’s and Wales’ bright stars, Aaron Ramsey. No one is suggesting that Ryan Shawcross intended to injure Ramsey. He missed the ball, Ramsey being too quick for him, but the force of the tackle broke Ramsey’s leg in the most horrendous way,
threatening his future in the game.
Before the laws were changed, a tackle like Shawcross’s would not have necessarily been punished if the referee believed Shawcross’s claim that he went for the ball. The referee had to decide whether there had been any intent. This is no longer required of the
referee: it is what happens that he has to take into account, or in some cases what could have happened.
Take the case of the player I cautioned in my game last week. ‘I went for the ball,’ he told me in the usual plea that players make in these circumstances. ‘I appreciate that,’ I told him, ‘but you were not in complete control of your challenge and that’s the sort of tackle that could break someone's leg.’ He took his yellow card without any further altercation.
As a reminder that its not just professional footballers who suffer from possible disabling tackles, the national newspapers last week covered the story of the first person in the history of football in this country to be jailed for a tackle on an opponent. The tackle came seconds from full time in a Sunday League match in Rugby. The opponent’s leg was smashed so badly in the studs-first tackle that his leg needed reconstructive surgery and a skin graft. He has not been able to work since, nor does it seem he will ever play football again. When sentencing the player to six months imprisonment, the Judge told him that ‘A football match gives no one any excuse to carry our wanton violence.
Older football fans will remember when nearly every professional club had a ‘hardman’. Their task was to take out, or at the very least, intimidate the skilful players amongst their opponents. It still happens today to a certain extent, but players have to be more careful because of the change in the laws. So what is it in the laws that makes one tackle just a foul and a free kick, another punished by a yellow card, and another one result in a sending off? It is mainly a question of force and likely injury to the opponent, so even if the opponent remains unscathed it can still result in disciplinary action against the tackler.
The three categories listed in the Laws of the Game are ‘careless’, reckless’ and ‘using excessive force’. A careless tackle is one where the opponent is brought down, perhaps a slightly late tackle but where the risk of injury is low and punished only by a free kick. A reckless tackle is one where, even if the player is attempting to play the ball, he acts without regard to the danger to or the consequences for his opponent. Sometimes a casual tackle may be cautioned when it breaks up a promising attack. A red card for using excessive force is where a player exceeds the necessary use of force and is almost certain to injure the opponent. To some extent it is where there is an amount of brutality in the tackle.
Football is a contact sport and there will always be injuries to players but what referees must do under the
Laws of the Game is not restrict tackles but to try and deter those that are likely to injure.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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