Hacker: 'The modern game'

The art of tackling is dying on its arse. This isn’t so much a creeping realisation as it is a bald truth that has only been reinforced by the latest in a long line of high-profile incidents. Jack Rodwell’s red card in the recent Merseyside derby was followed up two weeks ago by Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton’s tackle on West Brom’s centre-forward Shane Long.

For this, we can blame the astronomical sums of money around which football revolves. The clubs take such high-stakes gambles in the transfer market nowadays that distortions of the rulebook are an essential means of insurance.

In this the media are complicit; they couldn’t siphon anywhere near the same amount of money from football if the sport’s greatest assets were out injured for weeks at a time. No, the nice-little-earners must be protected. Hence we treat the likes of Fernando Torres as though they were crafted of fine-boned china. “We all wanna see talent like that in the Premier League,” we are told by some friendly-faced former West Ham player on Sky Sports News.

Amid the round of condemnation of Hutton’s tackle on Match of the Day that night, Alan Hansen actually spoke the words: “Well, he’s played the ball, but...” But what? Hansen broke off that particularly dangerous train of thought. Far too great an implication that the tackle might actually have been fair.

Former referee Dermot Gallagher told Sky Sports News that: “Once you leave the ground, you lose all control over your body.” Now, not to get caught up in semantics, but that’s bollocks. Leaving the ground does not constitute a foul in itself. The player has only ‘lost control’ if the referee deems it so, but here we have a problem.

Rodwell’s red card is a prime example of the depths of ineptitude to which pressure can drive a fully-qualified professional referee. The consequences of a mistaken red card are nothing next to the potential reputation damage of letting a leg-breaker go unpunished.

We see it each week, up and down the leagues – it’s filtering down into grassroots football – and yet we just shrug our shoulders and go along with it. Football is infinitely less dirty than it was in the past. And don’t give me that guff about ‘the increased pace of the game’ either. The faster tackles may look more spectacular, but the worst damage is done when boots are planted in the turf.

You may think him an arsehole; you may think that getting the ball was an afterthought; you might be foaming at the mouth, demanding swift revenge be exacted – but if it was a fair tackle it doesn’t matter how hard-done-to you feel. Football is not particularly hazardous, as contact sports go. True purists recognise this, savouring the strong tackle and stout defence as much as the nutmeg and the one-touch passing.

We need to stop listening to and parroting the media sycophants. Even beneath their carpet-bombing we can preserve the core values of our game. Football is a contact sport; people will get hurt, and it is nobody’s duty to provide you with entertainment.