The last thing I want is for anyone to feel that I am anti VAR or PGMO referees. but recently, together, they have destroyed my belief in what makes a tackle, a fair or foul one.
The laws of the game talks about reckless or using excessive force but I am talking about the everyday tackle, what the law calls a careless tackle for the want of a better description.
I have passed on this belief with a physical demonstration over many years to trainee referees as an FA Instructor/Tutor.
If a player has the ball at his feet and an opponent comes in, usually from the side. and cleanly plays the ball and the player falls over his outstretched leg, then that is a fair tackle.
If however, the opponent makes contact with the player first, bringing him down, that is a foul even if he plays the ball. If the opponent, usually coming from behind, plays the ball first, but brings the player down, perhaps with his trailing leg, this is also a foul. Did the player fall or was he brought down?
So what has shaken my belief? Two top referees and a video replay. In the Manchester City v Southampton match, England full back, Kyle Walker running after Adam Armstrong tackled him in the City penalty area.
His outstretched leg was nowhere near the ball and with his upper leg hitting Armstrong half way up his thigh, knocked him over. An obvious foul tackle. Referee, Jonathan Moss, gave a penalty and showed Walker a red card for denying a goal scoring opportunity.
Then, after talking to his VAR, Martin Atkinson, one of our longest serving Premier League referees, to everyone’s amazement, including Walker’s, Moss cancelled not only the red card but also the penalty. So not a foul tackle after all.
In America, the MLS has a wonderful television programme showing VAR decisions and Video Manager, Greg Barkey, explains why those decisions were made.
If only they did this in this country, I might have learned where I have been getting it wrong all these years. Or have I?
By Dick Sawdon Smith
