As regular readers of this column will know, I am normally not enamoured with television football pundits but I have to admit to a broad smile at the
BBC's Match of the Day 2 a couple of weeks ago. In their 2 Bad – 2 Good feature, they showed a clip of Sir Alex Ferguson taken just after referee Andre Marriner had cautioned Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher for bringing down Michael Owen, now of Manchester United, just outside the Liverpool penalty area.
The presenter, Adrian Chiles, said of the sixty-five year old manager, ‘If his grandchildren have a tantrum he won’t be able to tell them off, because that’s just what he is having.’ It was quite true, he was jumping up and down, stamping his feet and waving his fists like a petulant six-year old, who been told to put his toys away and get ready for
bed.
The cause of Sir Alex’s displeasure was that he felt the yellow card was not enough for Carragher’s offence. He was not alone. One newspaper journalist wrote pompously that Mariner had made a mistake and that he should have shown Garragher a red card. This, of course, from someone who has probably never seen the laws of the game, let alone read them. If he had he would almost certainly come to a different conclusion.
What was Sir Alex’s and the writer’s reason for wanting Carragher sent
off? It couldn’t have been for violent conduct or serious foul play, as there was nothing violent or serious in the
tackle; it was more like a stumble into the back of Owen. Therefore they must have been calling for ‘denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity’. This law was introduced a few years ago to deter players deliberately bringing down opponents who looked likely to score, even though it meant giving way a free kick or even a penalty.
From the referee’s point of view, it is another critical decision he has to make. To help him make it there are four circumstances he must take into consideration.
The first one is the distance between the offence and the goal. For example, if the offence took place near the halfway line, it would be difficult to be certain that the player had an obvious chance of scoring. Not impossible but less likely. However, Owen was just outside the penalty area so well within scoring distance of the goal.
Next, the referee has to be certain that the player has control of the ball or could regain control if he were not offended against. This is why sometimes when players are brought down, perhaps by an ill-judged tackle by a goalkeeper, it doesn’t result in a sending-off. The player had already lost control of the ball and was unlikely to reach it in time to score. Still a penalty of course, but not a sending off offence.
The referee then has to consider the location and number of defenders. This is where many people, including football journalists and television commentators and pundits, get the idea of the ‘last man’. It doesn’t mean that. It means, could other defenders have intercepted the player if he had been allowed to run unhindered.
And finally, the referee takes into account the direction of play. To understand this, it is worth looking at the wording of this law which says ‘... denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick’. So the attacking player must be heading towards the goal and here we can see why Andre Mariner only issued a yellow card. Michael Owen was travelling sideways across the pitch at the time of the offence, and not towards the goal.
The referee will learn, said Ferguson after the game. The question is - will Ferguson?
Dick Sawdon Smith
Back
To Contents