Play your cards right

Posted by Ray Stubbs on 01/10/2009

When players start waving imaginary cards in the air it is guaranteed to cause a massive row.

Trying to get an opponent sent off has always been deemed out of order or would the correct phrase be "unsporting behavior"?

But what is the difference between appealing for a "corner" and asking the referee to apply the laws of the game and appealing for a player to be shown a yellow card for one of the myriad offences that warrant a caution as laid down by the laws of the game? Demands for consistency have seen a move towards "uniformity" in handing out yellow cards.

We ask that referees apply common sense and show discretion but also criticise inconsistency. Players "draw" fouls with skill and positioning. The sanction is a free-kick but in today's game it's a free-kick "plus". We see referees signalling to players that they have committed three or four offences and its clear they are on a last warning. Next offence is a yellow card and with that comes a tightrope.

Two yellow cards equals a red and a team is a man down, theoretically an advantage to the opposition so why is it unsporting to remind, appeal, ask the referee to apply the laws of the game?

In football's dark ages, when I was a player, you had to go close to "grevious bodily harm" to get a caution but it didn't pay to take the mickey too much.

"Ref, can you get booked for thinking?"

"No" came the reply.

"Good because I think you are useless."

"I dont think, I know you are cautioned for dissent" was usually the full stop on that incident.

In those days, getting sent off was a stain on your character. Today, yellow and red cards are occupational hazards to be expected, part and parcel of the game.

Petty fouls and offences are in there with horrible two-footed tackles, vicious elbows, going over the ball. That's what we should get wound up about. And we haven't even started to discuss simulation. The code of conduct is that we appeal for everything whether it was or wasn't; it's a corner, its our throw-in, it was offside.

In such a competitive atmosphere as the game is these days, appealing for a yellow card to be shown and placing an opponent on a tightrope is inevitable. Though considering some of the theatrical performances of the card wavers, now they deserves at least a yellow.

Regards

Ray Stubbs

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