This is what is wrong with the game-rules are not clear at all!

19/03/2013 23:08

    Following the tackle by Callum McManaman the govening body of English football felt it had to let fans hear what they had to say.

The statement from the FA reads :



 
"Following consultation with the game's stakeholders (the Premier League, the Football League, the Professional Footballers' Association, the League Managers' Association, Professional Game Match Officials Limited and the National Game) in the summer, it was agreed that retrospective action should only be taken in respect of incidents which have not been seen by the match officials.
"Where one of the officials has seen a coming together of players, no retrospective action should be taken, regardless of whether he or she witnessed the full or particular nature of the challenge. This is to avoid the re-refereeing of incidents.
"In the case of Callum McManaman, it has been confirmed that at least one of the match officials saw the coming together, though not the full extent of the challenge. In these circumstances retrospective action cannot be taken.
"The principal objective behind the not seen policy is to address off-the-ball incidents where match officials are unlikely to be in a position to witness misconduct."
Newcastle's managing director Derek Llambias said the club was disappointed with the FA's decision not to take any action against McManaman and described the current disciplinary procedures as "not fit for purpose"

 To be fair they do have a point, or be it a weak one.

 Now I don't think for a single second that the lad, who was making his debut, went in to hurt the player. But now compare it to to Nani's challenge in the Champions League game against Real Madrid; Nani was looking at the ball as I believe McManaman was; the outcome was, in both cases, players getting injured.

   Now because the referee saw the challenge in the Manchester United game, he gave Nani a red card, I'm still trying to work out why? Not once does he take his eye off the ball!

  I strongly believe that in both cases that no intent to hurt the opposing happened! Yet one player, due to the official not seeing the action, gets to play the rest of the game while the other is sent off!

                                                               

Dave Whelan, The Wigan Chairman, has defended the player. The thing that makes this unique is Phelan himself was forced to retire from the game after a tackle in the nineteen sixty FA Cup Final broke his leg, he was never the same player after that.

   Where the fans, the players, and most importantly the officials are getting confused is in the word 'intent,' at the end of the day it's the referee's decision but as we all know, they can get it wrong.

    The message going out to the children that watched that horrid tackle must be confusing; you can let a bad tackle go but if you take your top off after scoring you get a yellow card!

The rules of football are very unclear and at the end of the game one set of fans will be happy while the other will feel as if they've had a kick in the balls.

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