Should UEFA have a say on hard tackles?

By: Ian Rose | February 28th, 2008

The media uproar around Martin Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo, and the horrifying break that resulted, has begun to subside, leaving the questions of why this sort of tackle is so routinely allowed in England, and what to do about it. The question that interests me is why the larger international bodies seem to have so little to say about disciplinary matters like this.

The game of professional football is perhaps the most international sport in the world, with very few top-tier clubs being made up purely of domestic players. Players move between leagues all the time, especially between the big leagues like England, Spain and Italy. The basic rules of the game are, of course, the same everywhere. Isn’t it time that discipline, to a certain extent, goes the same way? Isn’t it time for some sort of universal guidelines for what constitutes a carding offense?

I realize that there will always be a lot of referee judgment involved in the disciplinary process. I think there always should be. But, when a certain tackle will land a player in a two-month ban in France, and barely warrant a red card in England, I think there’s an issue that reaches to at least a continental scale. If all of the leagues could agree that a studs-up sliding tackle, whether one-footed or two, that makes any contact at all is a red card, that could be an adopted rule across all the leagues in UEFA, or at least all of the top leagues. Italy, France and Spain should have no problem with this sort of rule, since they enforce tackles like this much more harshly anyway, and it could only help the English game. Right now, players have to choose between the vast sums of money available in the Premiership, and the (statistically unproven) higher risk of major injury from this sort of tackle.

I don’t want to continue the trend of over-reacting to a single play in a single match, and making the English game boil down to nothing but sliding studs-up tackles. That would be unfair to a game that produces some absolutely stunning football on its best days. But I would like to hear other peoples’ opinions about the idea of some sort of universal rule and something like a minimum punishment for certain types of tackles.

Category: Europe

Tags: Discipline, Eduardo da Silva, Europe, FIFA, La Liga, Ligue 1, Martin Taylor, Premier League, Referees, Serie A, UEFA

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• nathan talbot |  February 29th, 2008 at 12:49 am

  
  
  

  the biggest problem with that is that football as a sport is already heading towards being a game without tackles, there are a lot of tackles in all leagues that ten or twenty years ago were commonplace yet now they result in cards, this takes away the competitive edge of the game.
  also the mass of diving we see from our ‘top’ players would most likely result in more unfair freekicks and cards

  Posted from United Kingdom

  

• Ian |  February 29th, 2008 at 9:51 am

  
  
  

  Both valid points. I think there’s some balance to be made between dangerous tackles and just good hard tackling. But it’s probably up to smarter people than me to figure out.

  Posted from United States

  

• Inara |  February 29th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

  
  
  

  Ordinarily I’m all about UEFA minding their own business, but sometimes I’d wish they’d shake some sense into the English FA.

  All Martin Taylor received was a three match ban, which is what you get when you get a red card in England.

  THREE games? That’s it? That’s ridiculous, especially when they gave Aliadiere a four match ban for a love tap on Mascherano.

  You know, I don’t even care about the injury so much (in terms of punishment). What I care about is the fact that at the 3rd minute, Taylor when towards a player who was 30 meters away from his goal, in a situation that wasn’t dangerous at all, and tackled another player recklessly without any thought, simply to send a message saying that “It’s going to be a tough game, son.”

  I’m not saying that Taylor had an intent to injure. But he had an intent to intimidate. And the result is the same: a horrible, horrible tackle that lead to a horrible, horrible injury.

  People keep saying that so many similar tackles go unpunished, most of which don’t result in injuries. And that football is a contact sport and that injuries are a part of the game. But these sort of tackles aren’t right when there are injuries and aren’t right when there aren’t injuries, and regardless of the outcome, should always result in red cards and bans. Hello, video evidence!

  Whether Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg or not is irrelevant to the punishment. It’s the education that’s important here. That any player should think twice, three times, before making a tackle like that. In fact, that they shouldn’t make tackles like that period. And the punishment should have reflected that.

  Yet the FA screwed it up.

  That would not have happened in a continental league. Spain, France, Italy, and even Germany would have made sure Taylor sat on his ass for at least two months. It’s a shame because the English FA could have used this opportunity to raise their standards of what is acceptable and what isn’t.

  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wouldn’t mind UEFA stepping in with some sort of totally unfair comment like, “No, a three match ban just isn’t good enough. Raise your standards or don’t play in European competition next year. It’s your choice.”

  /end rant.

  Posted from United States

  

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