A&H

Late, not bad, tackle?

R

Richthekeeper

Active Member
I was reffing a local derby - Green v Maroon on Saturday when a Green player stretched to tackle his opponent on the halfway line near the touchline. The Maroon player nicked the ball away from him a split second before contact, and went down under the challenge. No studs showing, not high, just a trip.

The Maroon CAR was close to the incident, as was I, and went absolutely mental saying it was a disgusting challenge. I came over to calm him down and just said that "it wasn't a bad tackle, just late."

His response was hilarity, and as I continued with play he carried on expressing his disbelief that I could make the distinction between "bad" and "late".

I was actually quite surprised at this - i thought the difference would be obvious!
 
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Some peoples thoughts on when player is tackled in that way I would probs still give free kick and just say to player even thou you got the ball you also got player
 
i should have made it clear that i did give a DFK for this.

i just wondered if anyone had a comment on the distinction between "bad" and "late"?
 
Richthekeeper said:
i just wondered if anyone had a comment on the distinction between "bad" and "late"?
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some bad tackles are late, some late tackles are bad.....

tho' i do agree with the premise that there is a difference in my understanding of the two
 
Some painful tackles are good, some non-painful tackles are bad...and some late tackles are nothing much to get excited about, but still a free kick.

I'm not sure what the exact problem is here. You saw it, feel you got it right. Seems like your question's more about the CAR's reaction.

What was the fouled player's response? That of his team-mates?
 
Player moves the ball at the last second would suggest that he would have got the ball otherwise, in which case, Careless. FK. Perhaps a quiet word and get on with it.
 
I would not have used the words late or bad, use the words careless, reckless or excessive force. Say to your (helpful) CAR "Look I was close enough to see that the tackle was careless and that is why I have given a free kick, if it had of been reckless I would have cautioned the player for unsporting behaviour, now lets not hear anymore about it shall we".
 
Matty, exactly my thought process.

Oliver, I would love to take that approach but unfortunately the guys I referee are not blessed with the intelligence to understand the careless/reckless continuum. late/bad was just easier.
 
If the CAR wants to referee, let him do the required course and take up the whistle! :) sounds like you did right to me, DFK get on with it.

One thing, I see you point rich about player/officials understanding of the laws of the game but I would go with Oliver's advice and stick to the careless/reckless terminology. If they then dig out the law book post game what you said can be backed up in black and white.
 
Saturday my scheduled game was off, so i ended up reffing Maroon again. I had the same issue with their captain complaining about "late" challenges. I did point out to him that if it wasn't late it probably wasn't a foul.

We had a discussion after the match because he felt that his player had been unfairly cautioned while the opposition players were not cautioned for their fouls. I explained that the difference was down to match situation and you can't just apply the same perspective to every challenge. I also told him that a number of times I had played (and signalled) advantage for small fouls but saw no need to issue a caution.

The yellow I gave to his player was for a reckless tackle which probably would have earned a caution in its own right. However it also prevented a promising attack and it was for that reason that I showed the yellow card. That was the only yellow I showed in the game, although the same player later got a straight red for OFFINABUS.

Unfortunately he didn't seem to understand, so I advised him that he might want to consider going on the referee course so he could better understand the laws and their application.

Maroon won the game 4-3.
 
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Not a lot he could say to that! He also started down the road of "i've been playing football for a long time" to which i replied "i played Welsh League for ten years, so let's not go down that road shall we?"

;)
 
I had an ex-professional give it the old "I've been playing football" bit. I warned him about holding at a corner. He was stood in front of the player with both arms out behind him at a 45 degree angle. "You're joking ref. I've been doing it like this for the last thirty years." "Well, you've been doing it wrong for thirty years then. Do me a favour and get it right today."
 
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