TV pundits may be well versed in footballing tactics, but they are not always up to date with the Laws of the Game. Sadly, the average viewer may believe what they hear and it puts distrust in the decisions of referees.
In their Premier League game, against Burnley, a Wolves player went down heavily in the penalty area. Players of both sides gathered around him with a lot of holding and shoving of opponents and Adama Traore of Wolves put his hand on a Burnley players face.
The referee, Darren England, watched the proceedings carefully and when it was over, he showed Traore a yellow card. Ian Wright, former England centre forward now pundit, exploded, ‘raising your hands to someone face, that’s a sending off offence’. That saying has been around so long, that many people believe it.
But is it valid? When such an offence occurs, and the game is in play, it could be thought of as striking, but striking in itself is not a sending off offence.
A free kick or penalty would be awarded, but ‘spitting at or biting someone’ is the only one of the eleven direct free kick offences that automatically becomes a sending off.
Most of such incidents tend to happen when the ball is out of play. as in this case, so it cannot be a foul but becomes instead misconduct. Striking then only becomes a sending off offence, if it considered violent conduct.
The Law says,’ Violent Conduct is when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent or any other person, when not challenging for the ball, regardless of whether contact is made’.
It adds, ‘When not challenging for the ball, a player who deliberately strikes an opponent, or any other person, on the head or face with the hand or arm, is guilty of violent conduct (but here is the 2016 addition) ‘’unless the force used was negligible”.
Traore’s hand to the opponents face may have been silly, provocative even, but could not be considered violent, and therefore the referee’s yellow card was the correct sanction.
By Dick Sawdon Smith
