By Rich Ade-Alao
If I may answer the question in the headline, they are not acceptable. A malicious tackle is crude, classless, and an untrue reflection of the game the fans or neutral fans would wish to watch.
If real football with true talents and full passion is going to be salvaged from the imminent extinction being careless permitted by the guys running football, fans have to stand up and say something about how they should be served with what they are paying to watch.
The savage Sergio Ramos – Mo Salah tango that summarily ended the hope of Liverpool to win the 2018 Uefa CL final champions medal has re-awakened my concern again this time. I am of the opinion that this sort of malicious tackle is bringing the game to disrepute. It has always resulted in the outcome of the match being altered unfairly by the disadvantage inflicted on the team whose player had been injured.
I made this comment before some years ago, when I commented on reasons why Arsene Wenger ‘s team failed after the 2005/6 season, when the serial bone-breaking tackles inflicted on some of the players (which had put the careers of these players at risk, and actually some did not recover till date) was a major factor.
Many might be of the same opinion, so it is time to begin a campaign for a better 21st Century rule of the game that will take away these barbaric footballers from the game. Otherwise, no matter what good works a coach does will vanish away like the referee’s spot-marker spray as soon as the game starts only by a looming cruel tackle.
Perhaps, I am a naive football fan, but it would be nice to know the record and gain that Real Madrid was looking to gain, so much as to be in such desperation as to use such heinous tactic. I think Zinedine Zidane should be totally ashamed as a coach (and for his past achievements as a player too,) who has almost a breathtaking array of talented players on his hands but had to rely on unprofessional methods of amateur football to win a final that would be three in a roll.
This record is not new to Uefa competition, but I think I am right to say that Galacticos is a ruse, a artful deception.
The Arsenal cases are illustrative of my complaint. The team was riding high in the table and the performances on the field were scintillating, out of this world; from a different planet.
Eduardo Dos Santos was on a cruise control, it must have been his best ever season in his career I believe. He was on course to be better than Robin Van Persie, and the tackle inflicted on him was so bad he could never recapture his old form and had to leave the EPL in order to be able to player football again.
Then there was the of the Rosicky injury which meant that the Arsenal 2010 season ended in October or so as fear crept into the mind of the rest of the squad, so that no one was able to play with all necessary passion again. And for some seasons thereafter that is exactly how it was.
If a real football, with the flourishing of true talents and full passion, is going to be salvaged from the imminent extinction being carelessly permitted by the guys running football, fans have to say something about how they should be served with what they are paying to watch.
If fans stayed away because a coach was not performing, then fans will soon stay away from any competition that is set up to allow just anything by those who are in control, but do not take responsibility.
- How far are we behind our rival clubs?
- That question of negative runs: Klopp, Tottenham and who has won what
- Arsenal’s squad for next season, including home grown and under 21 status.
Not to mention Jose Antonio Reyes virtually and cynically kicked of of the Premiere
bu Sir Alec Ferguson’s bunch of systematic assassins
And not to mention Diaby whose career was completely wrecked by the disgraceful Dan Smith. He even managed to get an article in the Star in 2015 saying he was fed up as being known as the disgraceful player who did Diaby. Maybe he should have thought about that before doing it.
I simply can not beleive that there is no Police Action let alone Football enquiry into this Final.
Sergio Ramos carried out a vile asault on Mo Salah, a maneouvere which is often carried out by Prison Wardens.
Only then to read that so called football pundits thought that he did no wrong!!??
It brought back memories of Alan Brazil boasting that their was nothing wrong with the two footed lunge purpetuated on Diaby all those years ago.
I would have thought at least an enquiry into the Goalkeeper.Whose antics you would be hard pressed to come across over at Hackney Marshes(well not twice in one game anyway).
Drew
Couldn’t agree more. It’s time the allumni of world football authorities started to deliver retrospective punishments ( even if the referee dealt with it within the game )to players for bad tackles and even feigning injuries ( Ramos again ). Bad tackles are starting to destroy the fairness of games as a whole. But I don’t expect, FIFA, EUFA, or even the F.A. to do anything to curtail this as the haven’t got the balls ( sorry for the pun ) to stand up to other countries’ football associations and own F.A. will not to stand up to individual players and teams within the divisions. Once they start to ban and fine players and after the initial crying about it , it will curtail it significantly.And if players and teams don’t, start threatening them with points deductions from teams for persistent poor behaviour of their players.Because after all it is cheating.
This is where the informal media ban on serious discussion of refereeing causes so much difficulty. We did use to have very open discussion of refereeing even in domestic games on Radio 5, but then suddenly that stopped, and now the amount that is said about refs is tiny.
The reason is that PGMO put pressure on the League and FA and they told the broadcasters that anything that undermined the credibility of the referee in ANY game could see the organisation removed from the list of accepted broadcasters. This came in along with rules to the effect that the media could not show any violence in the ground, any pitch invasion etc etc.
It is not just in England that such rules appear: in Spain for example clubs are fined by broadcasters if they show more than a certain percentage of empty seats in a ground.
As long as these restrictions stay in place, referees know that their incompetence will remain a well hidden secret from most football follwers. After all, if it is not mentioned on TV or in the papers, it doesn’t exist.
Allowing that sort of tackle is tantamount to turning a beautiful sport into some sort of cage wrestling without the timely interference of the ref…No late tackles and/or studs up tackles are accidental and should invoke immediate red cards.. They spoil the sport as much as forearm punches do under the guise of additional lift in a header.
The savage Ramos did the same to Roben during the semi finals failed to continue and was substituted. Now, Mo Salah was the star player for Liverpool goes off the pitch 30 minutes into the game and Ramos, Ronaldo and the first referee assistant happy and smiling, very good, end of the game for Liverpool. No yellow card and no booking, good for Ramos and his uncle the idiot referee, the player later went on to fake a foul and had Mane yellow carded.The referee was quick to defend his nephew Ramos and quickly flashed a yellow on Mane pouring more fear on the player not to score another goal and Ramos was smiling. This is the captain who must show higher levels of conduct, guess what, the player is an assassin check his past record as to how many players he has injured. Liverpool lost Mo Salah and we new the Assassins were winning the final and won under very unfair circumstances. The referee’s and Ramos’s days are numbered. We can only wish them bad luck.
@Rich Ade-Alao after reading the first few paragraphs, I am totally on your side. The Mo Salah shoulder lock was bad but the roll over on top to ensure injury was evil. The game has no place for such nasty tackles that destroy such a beautiful game. The goalkeeper may be forgiven & Bale applauded but Ramos should never play the game again.
What is happening to Untold? The change is …………………
Come on now did anyone expect the match to be on anything like a level pitch! The only way Liverpool could win was if everything went in their favour and that just wasn’t ever going to be the case.
The foul was deserving of a red card – it was deliberate, involved excessive force and designed to injure an opponent. Had it been made by a player in red that is almost certainly what would have happened.
The first goalkeeping error would probably have been pulled. Ackat the other end as well. From a refereeing point of view there was nothing to argue against for the other three goals
To add insult to injury, the match referee did not even punish the hard tackler, Sergio Ramos with at least a yellow card but a red card for him would have been more appropriate for his vandalising Mo Salah in that Uefa Champions League final match between R Madrid and Liverpool in Kiev last Saturdsy night.
If the hearing of match robbery by Real Madrid is not a mere allegation heard to tarnish the club’s image for it winning the CL final matches on numerous occasions but a true statement of fact as they are seen to always looked to win the CL final matches whenever they reach the final with the match referee in high profile CL matches and in the final match ading them always to win the final match in particular. Thes questionable winnings of the CL final matches by Real Madrid which they are looking to have perfected to never lost a CL final match is tantamount to match robbery by R Madrid with the aid of the match referee in CL final match ading them to win. I think with the aid of a PGMO referee who refereed in the CL 2nd leg semifinal match between Real Madrid and Jeventus played at the Santiago Bernabeu last season, Pgmo referee, Michael Oliver who refereed the match helped Real Madrid by robbing Jeventus when he sent off the Juve’s goalkeeper, Buffon to thus allowed R Madrid to win the semi-final match on the night.
With the open Uefa Cup final match robbery of Liverpool by the match referee when he should have sent off Ramos for his heinous wrestling tackle on Mo Salah which if he did would have reduced R Madrid to 10 men in the game in the last CL final match last Saturday at Kiev but the referee didn’t. I think this match robbery accusation being leveled against Real Madrid in the Eufa Champions League matches is a valid accusation.
I’m shocked, yes Ramos can be a dirty player. This ucl final I didn’t see that. Ramos is physically stronger, and he did not lock Salahs arm, if anything another case of shoulder to shoulder and any ugly fall.
Anyway here’s a great compilation of wengerball in motion.
https://youtu.be/w8PD89t9SGM
After the tackle stopped watching the match. Utterly shamefull and horrific acts are allowed in the game. Real Madrid is a team of thugs, who can’t win a game fairly. It was gut-wrenching to sea a talented footballer leave the feild. Shame on Real Madrid and Players.Hopefully it will be the end of the Spanish teams in the CL, as Ronaldo and Messi have aged and EPL teams have progressed.
Hope we don’t have to watch such incidents, and such trophy winners again.
The injury to Sallah may not have happened if Sergio Ramos hadn’t held his arm the way he did in that tackle that saw both of them hit the ground with such an impact that affected Salah more than it did Ramos. The Referee was very close to the action and couldn’t possibly claim not seeing it. However, it will take further study to determine whether that tackle was meant to achieve a very strong probability of gravely injuring Sallah or was by sheer accident.
Unfortunately it will take some serious doing to unravel the real cause of Sallah’s untimely exit from the match after that tackle. I have heard that Ramos has an unenviable record of poor tacking in previous matches and it could also have been the same thing on this occasion, but the footage is not sufficiently convincing that this was another one of his ‘dark arts’ (as someone described it) to warrant Ramos’ being pilloried.
I am not saying Ramos was guilty of anything, neither am I saying he was not, my whole point is that it is very very difficult to judge either way in this situation and therefore to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe I’m the lone voice here but I see no malicious tackle by Ramos on Salah. It was neither a 2 footed tackle or was it a tackle to injure a player. Let’s look at the facts critically.
1. Both players had their arms intertwined as they hustled for the ball. Salah held unto Ramos as much as Ramos held unto Salah.
2. Ramos got his leg to the ball as he was taller and stumbled in the process. He however pulled Salah along with him as he fell. By pulling him along to prevent him from going for the ball he toe poked, it was a foul but not malicious with intent to injure Salah.
Was it a foul? Absolutely.
Does it deserve a yellow card? Probably not.
Was it malicious? Definitely not. At least not to the extent we see regularly in the EPL where we see 2 footed leg breaking tackles go unpurnished. Do you remember the tackle that got Wilshere injured again 3 seasons ago in Arsenal vs ManU. A foul was not even given nor was it mentioned in the media. I remember Wilshere posting pictures of the tackle and his foot after he was accused of having a brittle ankle.
I am trying not to be sentimental and to look at that foul irrespective of the reputation of Ramos. If it were Varane or another player that did it, there might not be so much outrageous call for his been given a retrospective ban.
Also in the same match, Dani Carvajal was injured due to a tackle by a Liverpool defender on his ankle as he was shoved at the back. He is now also in danger of missing the WC. The player was neither carded or was a foul even given. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t even get the name of the player that did the tackle on Carvajal online. So much for double standard in news reporting.
If UNTOLD wants to be taken more seriously, then remove sentiments when reporting your news which makes you standout from other blogs.
I do wonder if there would have been such consternation in our beloved press and media if this had of been Ramos on Auba of The Arsenal? No thought not.
With an unbiased eye, the Ramos ‘tackle’ was vile. He gripped Salahs arm to his side and pulled Salah to the ground & then rolled over Salah without freeing the arm. This strains the shoulder joint (ball & socket) to the point of dislocation. The pressure of Ramos’ shoulder on Salahs collar bone would also have an impact. I thought the collar bone had fractured judging by the reaction & where Salah was pointing.
The official was in close proximity & should have seen what happened, stopped the game & red carded Ramos. The move was a wrestling move & not a tackle as we normally see on a football pitch. Refereeing incompetence at this level of football is unacceptable but common place considering the level of corruption in the Game.
Ramos has the worst record in Real Madrid history for red and yellow cards. I think we can safely assume he knows what he is doing when he commits a foul.
Unfortunately, Real Madrid fans will be perfectly happy and even applaud the offender because nowadays the motto is win at all costs. Knocking out the opposition’s best forward is part of that attitude. Witness Manchester United’s treatment of Reyes in the 50th match.
Arsene Wenger’s moral attitude was absolutely the exception in the modern, big money game. Another good reason to mourn his loss.
Hi Untold.
What has happened to my carefully composed post?
Still not there. Why?
@Nonny
I agree with you. I don’t understand why there has been so much hysteria. Maybe because it’s the “beloved” Liverpool who are involved.
Andrew Crawshaw “Come on now did anyone expect the match to be on anything like a level pitch! The only way Liverpool could win was if everything went in their favour and that just wasn’t ever going to be the case.” – Considering the manner in which they got to the final I have no issue with that (disgusting tackle notwithstanding).
From a retired professional official’s point of view, here is what I could see, without judging any intent on Ramos’ part:
1)He most definitely locked Salah’s arm, using a professional fouling movement he has used in the past,
2)He may have studied Judo, as his rolling fall forced his opponent to tumble with him,
3)The clear foul could have been a red card offence as it was dangerous, extremely maladroit and resulted in Salah being injured,
4) He is known as an aggressive and sometimes violent tackler and gets into a ¨red mist¨ as referees call it, all too often,
5) The Law for fouls and misconduct (# 12, part 1/2) expressly forbid a player from holding his opponent to prevent him from getting to the ball and a caution is required. Ramos was guilty of serious foul play and depending on the officials opinion, could have been dismissed for such. The minimum he should have had was a yellow card for obstructing his opponent but there was much more to be seen as his behaviour injured his opponent through his careless and dangerous tackle.
Nonny…..we are not sentimental on UA, we look at the facts, and the laws and try and interpret them as fairly as possible. I am sure Walter, reviewing this incident would concur with me. I’d like to know how you could judge Ramos’ intent? suspected or apparent ¨Intent¨ cannot be used by the referee to make a decision, it has to be the consequences of the player’s actions…..and based on that it is clear he caused a serious injury, dispossed the player illegally and acting in a dangerous and reckless manner, something he has been repeatedly ejected from game for.