The rules of the game

In light of the 'controversial' red card in the Manchester United - Real Madrid game, I thought I'd do a post on my view footballs rules and regulations in this particular area. Now, for me, Nani's red card was definitely the correct decision (and of course I'll be accused of biased and United fans will disagree), for one, it was regarded as dangerous play - which seems reasonable as Nani has, albeit inadvertently, studded another player in the ribs! The counter argument is that he was not looking at the player and there was no intent... So what, it is still dangerous play, I could shoot someone without looking, or intending to cause major harm, it doesn't change the fact that I've gone and blown somebodies head off does it? Okay, so maybe that was a poor analogy but you get the point, Nani still put another player at risk of serious injury.

At this point you would usually get many a united fan hurling abuse and possibly pointing to the fact that a yellow card would have been suitable and that the ref has just ruined a major European cup tie. Well, first of all, maybe a yellow would have sufficed, I wouldn't have been surprised if got either yellow or red. However, to say it ruined the game, as I have heard many a commentator exclaim, is in my opinion, complete rubbish. Let's look at one perfect example of how that statement is ridiculous; Barcelona v Chelsea 2012 champions league semi-final second leg, Chelsea go down to ten men deservedly after Terry made the mistake of kneeing another player in the back for no reason, did this ruin the game... No.

The game remained tense and exciting, ending up in that memorable Torres equaliser to seal the blues aggregate victory or the even more memorable Gary Neville score-gasm. It was plain to see that Chelsea parked the proverbial bus while Barcelona squandered a few chances and at no point did anyone say the red card ruined the game.

So why should this be said about Manchester United? Clearly because they lost, in my eyes it was still very competitive, United had a number of big chances and definitely piled the pressure on Madrid. It is clear to me that matches in many cases have been made even the more exciting with a dismissal in my eyes; red cards change games but never ruin the contest.