In The Spur Of The Moment

Week in, week out, match officials are criticised for giving a yellow card for this or a penalty for that, but how much do journalists really know about the laws of the game? Through most of this article I will be using Tottenham’s Champions League match against A.C Milan as an example. At this point I should mention I am a qualified referee. Technically the referee is always right, every law is based on, ‘The opinion of the referee’, so if a referee does not award a penalty for handball in the box, then (in the eyes of the law) there was no handball because in the opinion of the referee there was no handball. The referee, Stéphane Lannoy had a good game last night, as did the other five officials. Unfortunately a great game was plagued by bad sportsmanship, although Ibrahimovic was very reasonable about his goal being disallowed. The two most discussed parts of the game (Apart from the goal) are Flamini’s tackle on Corluka and Gattuso’s outburst. First Flamini’s tackle, many people would say he should have been shown a red card. However the referee did not. I think his view was slightly obstructed by another play so all he saw was the start of the tackle and Flamini winning the ball. The referee was correct to award the free kick as he could see how hard the impact of the tackle was. I do not want to put words in the referee’s mouth but I think he wanted to keep all 22 players on the field of play and he probably thought that Flamini was caught up in the spur of the moment, while the tackle was dangerous I think Flamini intended to play the ball. As far as Gattuso is concerned the referee did the best he could, he booked the Italian veteran for unsportsmanlike like conduct, which was again the right call. Gattuso’s first ‘attack’ on the Tottenham assistant manager was worthy of a red card but unfortunately Stéphane was dealing with other players at that moment in time, so as he did not see anything, there was nothing he could do. When the full time whistle blows the referee can no longer issue cards, unlike at halftime. But officials can file reports and then the F.A, FIFA, UEFA etc.. will investigate what happened and if they feel it necessary, sanction the person in question. Based on what happened at the end of the match I would assume Gattuso will receive an extra three-match ban. But at the end of the day only one persons opinion counts, the referee.
Written by Thomas Munson