Adebayor's started so well for Man City
Sepp Blatter and Brian Ashton..
Two very important men in professional sport. says footballers shld be banned for life if they're involved in dangerous tackles. He says "players who do this kind of thing intentionally shld be banned form the game". What do you reckon?
And did England coach Brian Ashton do the right thing in dropping Danny Cipriani from the team for breaking a curfew ahead of his England debut? Or has Ashton been way too harsh?
Am i the only person that thinks that Mr Blatter has something against English football?He thinks England shouldnt host the world cup and now he wants players who commit bad tackles banned.There have been lots of bad tackles over the years that have gone unpunished and there will be plenty more.If he wants to make an example of martin taylor then this must be implied to every bad tackle.It will end up being that football will be non contact and there wont be any games because too many teams will have lots of squad members banned
players who do rough tackles intentionally should be banned from playing football for life
About four years ago, I took an under 17's team out to Italy to take part in a football tournament on behalf of a club called Brook House FC (Now AFC Hayes). I believe we were only the second British team to take part in this particular tournament.
I recall that everytime the players raised a boot and showed their studs, the ref would immediately 'blow up' and award a free kick to the opposition. The ref did this even if a player raised a boot (thus showing their studs) to control a rising ball that had bounced in front of them, a situation I did not consider to be dangerous play.
The lads quickly learned to use other means of controlling the ball in these situations and needless to say, not one of my players (or the opposition players) suffered any stud related injury during the tournament
At the time, I thought the refs were going a bit of the top, particularly in situations when no tackle was taking place (when I would expect the ref to blow for dangerous play). However, after what happend to Eduardo recently (and many others), perhaps the Italian youth referees were making a good point.
A fantastic idea in principle Mr Blatter - but there is only ever one person involved that knows if the tackle is intentionally harmful and that is the player themselves! - is the next suggested use of technology a lie detector test? I think referees need more support in using their discretion and applying the laws properly - its clear to see the verbal abuse referees get each and every game - start clamping down on this - its clear that this is intentional!
yes i think it was right to drop cipriani for being out at a night club. he knew the rules period.
yes the red card is obviously not enough for feet off the ground tackles.
learn and get the message this is sport.
The british are so behind the times in modern football it's embarrassing. From the technical coaching to the styles of football the first team plays, from the attitude of pundits to dirty football to the attitude of the fans to dirty football.
Blatter isn't a visionary. He's just stating what, to the majority of the football world (i.e. outside of backwards britain) is something very obvious.
I am totally in favour of getting thugs out of any sport be it football, rugby, hockey or crown green bowls but Blatter is just doing his usual posturing. He says 鈥淧layers who do this kind of thing INTENTIONALLY should be banned from the game.鈥 Who is going to decide if there was intent? And then maybe have to defend their decision in a court of law! Picture the scene... 'Well your honour, it must have been pre-planned as he went on to the field armed with a pair of football boots'. Yes occasionally players dive in in retaliation for something that has just happened to them. Unfortunately when you think of retaliation linked lunges the three players that most readily spring to mind are Beckham, Rooney and Gazza!
Ignoring the fact that he's re-igniting a debate that is resolved for all parties concerned, there are two reasons why Blatter's suggestion is ridiculous.
Firstly, it's difficult in most cases to judge intent. My feeling is that Martin Taylor didn't even intend to foul Eduardo let alone hurt him. I like to believe that no footballer is capable of wanting to injure someone that severely, but then I've been shocked before by what footballers are morally capable of!!
Secondly, the severity of the injury does not always reflect the seriousness of the tackle. Nobody suggested banning Denis Irwin or Richard Wright because they made the tackles that ended the careers of David Busst and Luc Nilis respectively. Like the majority of these incidents, the tackle appeared fairly innocuous and accidental until you saw the damage done.
Without wanting to trivialise his injury, Eduardo was just unlucky in that his studs were in the ground at the moment Taylor made contact, but every game is likely to have at least one late or mistimed tackle, and 99% of the time, the player escapes injury. If the authorities start extending bans for players like Taylor, what happens with clearly worse challenges where the tackled player is simply lucky enough not to have his foot grounded.
Off the top of my head Ricardo Carvalho against Villa, Michael Brown on at least two occasions and the 'uncriticisable' Steven Gerrard against Everton have all been guilty of two-footed tackles which looked far more mallicious. The difference is simply which leg the tackled player has his weight on. When the margins are that small, you can't allow the shock of an injury to influence the punishment.