It has been the week in which more data, statistics and comments have appeared in the media about the profusion of expulsions in Spanish football and its comparison with the other major European Leagues, where we won by a landslide with more red cards in Spain (94) than in the Premier (19), Bundesliga (29) and Serie A (40) together. And Friday arrives, and en the first game of the day in the Second Division, Andorra-Las Palmas, we found the expulsion of Hevel, a local player, after 40 seconds of the game.
It is to blush. It was the clear example of the misinterpretation that we are making of the VAR, who was the one who called the referee’s attention to review the play.
The action for which the Andorra player was finally sent off is very fashionable lately in our football. Player who, when he goes to the ground, first touches a divided ball and then, due to his own inertia, hits or takes the footballer with whom he was measured in the dispute. Punishing that action with red is not understanding the game. There is contact, yes. It may be missing, yes. After touching the ball the player’s leg hits the opponent high up, but he has no intention of doing so. That move confirms, at least from my point of view, the bad application that is being given to VAR at certain times. He goes into action in plays that, at most, are fouls and, if anything, yellow cards. The referee of the game is stopped by the play and they put a fixed photo that is misleading. It has nothing to do with reality. The plays must be seen in their development, at their normal speed, not stopped.
On Thursday, at Real Madrid-Barcelona, there was also a play worthy of analysis. Vinicius saw the yellow card for his tackle on De Jong and, already sanctioned, he addressed the referee angrily, with some aggressiveness, pointing his finger at him and saying I don’t know what things, which some have interpreted as an insult. That was expulsion. The reality was that he did not see the second card and I am convinced that, in that same situation, in a Cádiz-Valladolid match, to give an example, that same referee would have thrown out the player who had questioned him in that way. That is what cannot happen. That the same referee endures more in some games than in others. We already have to live with the different interpretation of the regulation from one collegiate to another, so that it behaves differently depending on the rivals. This is already more difficult to explain.
Now, it seems, as if we were only attentive and concerned about the slaps, elbows and stomps and not about other actions in the game that are not, in any case, natural. I mean grabbing and pushing in the box when you’re already in the middle of the jump. I will never understand why they point them outside and not inside the areas. When you don’t have fixed support on the ground, even with one leg, any touch destabilizes you and prevents you from contacting the ball. The players have already realized that now what is prioritized are the hands on the face and as soon as they touch them, they go to the ground, even if the contact does not have the necessary intensity. All this is accompanied by half a dozen colleagues surrounding the referee asking for the non-existent expulsion and if you don’t care, you’re left with 10 for nothing.
In these actions, the VAR would have to punish the simulators. I know that it is not one of the concepts for which you should intervene, but it should be added to the list. We would see, then, when these plays were subject to review, how the footballers would not simulate so much. We have to remove the trap. It is clear that we are more cheaters than in other countries and it is one of the reasons why we see so many red cards here. In the Premier League, for example, tickets are almost never protested and at best they are punished with yellow cards. There, normally, they only go to review for offside actions and some lost hands, almost never due to fouls. That’s why the game is so smooth. It hardly ever stops. In our League, the first to stop it are the referees themselves with their dialogues, the spray, the placement of the barrier even when you haven’t even asked for it… In addition, of course, to the story that the players tell you in the actions we are talking about.
There has been talk this week that they are thinking about changing the rules in the future and that 30 minutes be played with a stopped clock. I disagree. That would no longer be football. Football has to be continuous. By automating it so much we do not improve it. The other way around. There is, for example, the rule of six seconds that the goalkeepers have to put the ball into play. It is still valid, but it is no longer fulfilled. The goalkeepers, when they are interested, spend 20 seconds without serving and nothing happens.
The stomps that are punished so much now are usually actions that are only seen in the VAR, not on the field. On the ground they almost always look like in-game actions. Two players dispute, one arrives before and then steps on the other. Foul and yellow, at most, especially if he touches the ball before contact occurs. This is how the interpretation should be if we really want to whistle the intentions.
Something similar happens with the arms. Normally the player who is whistled for the foul and is sent off is the one who carries the ball and usually goes ahead while driving or running into space. The one who goes behind trying to recover the ball is the one who usually makes the foul first, either with a grab or a push. Whoever is ahead what he does is brace, get bigger, protect his position… However, what is whistled is the movement of the arms of the usually striker and not the foul made by the defender.
Kicks in soccer have always been given and I think that in my time as a player, more than now. With so many cameras these days, defenders are more exposed. Before there were only the eyes of the referee and scandalous kicks were given. We used long, aluminum studs, which are rarely used now. So the teams had two central defenders as a system to mark respect. A couple of giants who intimidated you in their own way in deed and word. Where they gave the most was at home. Outside, they cut more. I remember going to the dry fields in the south, which was pure cement because they didn’t irrigate and as you jumped into the field, the central ones hit the ground with their soles so you could hear the noise of the aluminum studs. We, in the north, however, used to throw water on them to make them muddy. We were more used to it. We trained every day in those conditions.
Who does not remember Benito at Real Madrid, Gallego at Barcelona. Atlético to Ovejero and Panadero. Athletic, against Astrain, Goiko, Lizarazu… Sevilla, against Alfaro and Javi Navarro… Not to mention the South Americans from Granada, the Montero Castillo, Fernández, Aguirre Suárez… Those from Elche… Now, however, this type of defense is growing less and yet the number of red cards is accelerating. It is a case to analyze what is being done wrong.
