But he got the ball

In football the deciding factor of whether someone has committed a foul when attempting to tackle a player is whether or not they got the ball first. This is, of course, with reference to yesterday's match between Newcastle and Arsenal. The turning point was when Abou Diaby was sent off for his reaction to a tackle from Joey Barton.

Now I'm not going to dispute Diaby's red, his reaction was simultaneously petulant and understandable (given the injuries he's suffered as a result of bad tackles) and deserved a red. As a professional footballer he shouldn't have reacted but was he right to feel a sense of injustice?

The relevant law from FIFA's Laws of the Game is Law 12 - Fouls and misconduct:

Law 12

Diaby violated the second last part of the law by pushing both Barton and Nolan and therefore deserved his red card. The challenge which caused the reaction could also be seen as violating the law.

Clarification of Law 12

Barton's challenge was a lunge from the front and it is hard to argue that it was not dangerous when you see how Diaby's leg bent on impact. Putting someone at serious risk of a broken leg definitely constitutes endangering their safety.

Whether or not a player got the ball first is irrelevant if he uses excessive force and endangers an opponent.


As it was, the referee didn't even give a free kick and Diaby reacted badly. It wasn't the first bad challenge Barton made in the game (see here) and the referee didn't punish what some would call "committed" challenges all afternoon.

The fact that Nolan committed the same offence as Diaby when trying to get the ball from Szczesny after the first penalty (which the linesman assistant referee had a clear view of) and only got a yellow card fired up the Arsenal conspiracy theories. Jack Wilshere shouldn't complain publicly about inconsistent refereeing but you can see his point.

Leaving the rest of the game aside, Barton's challenge was a foul. He should have been punished for it but wasn't. The justification of dangerous challenges on the basis of whether the player got to the ball before the opponent or not is part of the same "it's a man's game", macho nonsense which was shown so ludicrously recently.

Football is a contact sport and accidents will happen but surely it serves everyone's interests to make the game as safe as possible for those who earn their living from it.