Just when you think you have seen everything, something happens that makes you think again.
One of those things happened In the League One game, Gillingham v Fleetwood Town a couple of Saturdays ago. Two opposing players went for the same ball and both received a red card. Opponents have been sent off at the same time before but it’s more likely for a punch up.
In this case, two opposing players were going after the same ball from a different direction. The ball was running loose, roughly in the middle of the pitch and one player was approaching it from the right and the other from the left, both at great speed and both stretching out determined to reach the ball first.
After they crashed into one another. one player got up and walked away, whilst the other remained in a heap at the scene of the collision, quickly surrounded by members of both teams.
The referee, James Linington. was the calmest person around as he made his way to the scene, but to the obvious surprise of his team mates, showed a red card to the player still laying on the ground. He next walked over to the other player and also showed him a red card.
This was probably unique, so I praise the referee. I scoured ‘our’ book, which not only contains the Laws of the Game and the VAR Protocol but also several other chapters such as the glossary of football and refereeing terms as well as practical guidelines for match officials.
Nowhere could I find anything remotely like the incident that had occurred. The referee didn’t have the luxury of checking with the book but I think his actions were guided by a paragraph in its first chapter.
“The Laws cannot deal with every possible situation, so where there is no direct provision in the Laws, the IFAB expects the referee to make a decision within the ‘spirit’ of the game and the Laws”.
The referee saw two players making a tackle with excessive force and endangering the safety of an opponent. He could have backed out and awarded a free kick to the more injured player, but he thought them both guilty and acted accordingly.
Unfortunately, the video didn’t show how the game was restarted, I would love to know which team the referee gave the free kick to.
By Dick Sawdon Smith
