DAVID HOLDSWORTH: Lack of consistency over red cards leaves me frustrated
Vincent Kompany's sending off against Arsenal was another one of those incidents which caused me to pause and think about refereeing decisions that have gone against Lincoln this season.
I know you shouldn't, but you cannot help and think about them when you see an identical incident get leaner or fairer punishment.
When Kompany went in against Jack Wilshire, I felt the referee was put under pressure to send him off. I don't feel that Wilshire had control of the ball, but Kompany's legs left the floor and that is what cost him.
And as I watched that, I kept thinking again about Adam Smith's sending off against Grimsby on New Year's Day.
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Smith went in the same, but it was not with the same intent, nor with the same pace.
As Kompany's dismissal has now been overturned, I hope referees at our level will think again when they come to make these sorts of decisions.
And I'm not saying that tackling is a dying art or anything like that.
The game has moved on and we have to accept that.
I know for a fact that if I was playing today I would not last 10 minutes if I took my usual approach to defending.
I wouldn't finish a match, and would be facing a red card every game.
The rules are the rules, you play to them, but what we need to see is some consistency in enforcing them.
There was another incident in the game which left me questioning how referees interpret the laws.
When Laurent Koscieiny was sent off after 10 minutes, it reminded me of when Alan Power was brought down by Stockport's goalkeeper earlier in the season.
The goalkeeper was the last man and there was nothing given against him.
Yet Koscieiny was deemed the last man and got his marching orders.
We didn't see that happen for us.
The sooner that consistency is there, the less we will debate about if Kompany made a bad tackle or not.
Comments
by Isambard_KB
Friday, January 18 2013, 11:28AM
“I'm a practicing ref. The issue is interpretation, it's change over time and the number of cameras available, whilst the ref only gets one look at the incident. You wouldn't get consistency between 10 managers having all watched the incident several times. What chance does the ref have? Why do managers thus expect consistency?
The Kompany tackle whilst he played the ball is the sort that FIFA/the FA are trying to outlaw because it is potentially dangerous. His whole weight goes through the ball (or player) with a straight leg. This time he won the ball. Next time, he might break someones leg.
The other difficult area is handball. I interpret only deliberate handball as per the law. Players and fans have got used to handball being awarded more often such as when a shot or cross hits a defenders arm. I don't think that a cross from 3 or 4 yards hitting an arm deserves a free shot at goal from 12 yards.
In my opinion, the law should either be changed to include an indirect free kick for unintentional handball or we should go back to deliberate hand ball only as per the original law.
Up the Imps”
by Npton_Imp
Friday, January 18 2013, 8:22AM
“I never like this consistency argument. Of course it would be great, but are the players and managers consistent themselves. Indeed are we, the fans, consistent? No
That is football...”