Saddened! wrote:
The fact that we've seen referees give even worse decisions in the past shouldn't be an excuse for this mistake tonight. It was blatantly obvious Nani was trying to control the ball and was not in any way intending to hurt anyone. Show some common sense and show him a yellow. Or better still show him nothing and just give a free kick. The game was played in a really good spirit and it's daft that a player was sent off and decided the outcome. The ref should be punished for it and banned for a long time, if just for his arrogance.
What is intent in the modern game? Nothing, it has no relevance any more. Rooney regularly lashes out and kicks players with intent, but most of it is harmless and refereed like so.
Go back and watch the actual clip, look at where Nani's foot hits Arbeloa, look at which part of Nani's boot hits him, look at the speed of the play and tell me that it wasn't dangerous. There wasn't intent, but intent is irrelevant. Ibrahimovic was sent off in similar circumstances the other week against Saint Etienne, he was clearly trying to get the ball but you can't raise your boot that high, connect and then expect the referee to forgive you due to lack of intent. It's dangerous play and anything dangerous will always be in the grey area of yellow/red.
When I seen he'd shown the red I was shocked that he'd given the red in such a game, not because he'd given a red for the challenge. The spirit of the game is no excuse, the referee should call every decision individually and I felt there was enough reason for the red. If a yellow was given nobody would have argued, as I said before, I've seen much less given a red and it hasn't been contested. It doesn't make this one any more right, but it shows that people are using the occasion and emotion to protest a call they usually wouldn't.
