It’s reckless that horror tacklers are getting off too lightly

David Mellor
1 Oct 2008

Last week, Middlesbrough's Emanuel Pogatetz injured Manchester United's Rodrigo Possebon with a crude and reckless challenge that has no place in civilised sport.

The week before, Newcastle midfielder Danny Guthrie kicked out at Hull's Craig Fagan and broke his leg.

In each case, the offender received a red card and was banned for three matches.

Pogatetz has previous. While playing in Russia he broke a player's leg and was initially banned for six months.

Guthrie's offence wasn't a clumsy tackle but looked like a deliberate assault borne out of frustration.

In each case, the injured fellow professional could have been sidelined for months or even had his career cut short. So the question has to be asked: Is a three-match ban adequate?

Former referee Graham Poll, whose journalistic ravings are sometimes as curious as his decisions in his previous incarnation, thinks everything's for the best, in the best of all possible worlds.

He wrote: "The instant red card shown by Andre Marriner [to Pogatetz] will remind players that these tackles will not be tolerated." Complete cobblers.

In reality, the message sent out by such leniency is the opposite. It shows the authorities' impotence in the face of horrendous challenges.

The Football Association say those are the rules. So I say, change them. Or do it another way.

When the red mist descended on Ben Thatcher back in 2006 and he rendered Pedro Mendes unconscious, the former was charged with bringing the game into disrepute and handed an eight-match ban, with a further 15 suspended for two years. Why not do the same to Guthrie and Pogatetz?

It is plain daft that a manager who denounces the FA for the fools that they are gets hit with a disrepute rap but players who commit blatant assaults do not.

Not that I feel too sorry for managers right now. One of the reasons why the FA must act is that managers don't take action against offenders, however recklessly they behave on the pitch.

Indeed, managers seem to have lost any moral sense whatsoever, when even a supposed good guy like Reading's Steve Coppell sits back and allows his team to benefit from that non-goal at Watford.

The FA, heaven help us, are our last line of defence against primitive tackles and they seem too dim to appreciate that the smack of firm government is what is needed here. But not, of course, yet.

A spokesman said this week, a sliding scale of penalties for red cards is under consideration for next season.

Well, if I were you, mate, I'd get on with it, before someone gets really seriously maimed.

When even the PFA's Gordon Taylor can't defend a thug like Guthrie, saying what he did was "not acceptable", it is plainly time for immediate action. But I'm not holding my breath.

Let's give these refs a trial by television

Time to round up the usual suspects. So let us begin with Rob Styles who, no one will be surprised to hear, made a complete hash of a penalty decision at Old Trafford.

Which, surprise, surprise, went against the visiting team, as it always does at the Theatre of Dreams; something Sir Alex Ferguson should bear in mind before embarking on any further rants against match officials. Then there is Steve Bennett.

Again, no astonishment that he fell for a pathetic piece of theatrics at the JJB Stadium on Sunday, when Wigan's Wilson Palacios tried to launch himself into orbit, and poor booby Bennett pointed to the spot.

No line-up of culprits would be complete without Michel Platini, who proved once again this week he headed a soggy football once or twice too often during his illustrious career by offering his own solution to bogus penalties. Two more referees!

Hang on a minute. Why have six officials when a television replay could immediately tell the ref he got it wrong?

The fact Platini and FIFA chief Sepp Blatter don't want cameras should not prevent action. It does, though, for two reasons.

Firstly, our own FA are too busy sucking up to FIFA for the 2018 World Cup to tackle them on technology, even though every other major sport employs cameras.

Secondly, the big clubs are still prepared to put up with being dictated to by UEFA and FIFA, even though the clubs have the players and the money, and therefore the power, while the governing bodies do not.

Vaughan has it easy

Not that bad a life being Michael Vaughan in his declining years.

The former England captain was offered a lucrative central contract last month and not required to earn the money in this winter's Indian tour.

But it's a fair way to treat the old warrior and the rest will hopefully do him good. But, then again, so it would for the others as I'm sure our Test players play too much.

Still, the team have a proud record to defend in India; the only English people to go there and not get the runs!

Apology to heroic Hull

Last summer, I wrote disrespectfully about Hull's promotion to the Premier League. It is time to apologise.

To beat Arsenal at The Emirates is a formidable achievement. But they've done more than that, winning three and drawing two of their first six matches. And they are still unbeaten on the road.

No doubt tough times lie ahead and it may yet all end in tears but already Hull have justified their place in the top flight. Derby County they ain't.