Everybody knows football is a contact sport. I’m not referring to the American game here, mind you. Association football, or as the Yanks call “soccer” has every bit a rough element to it. However, there have to be lines drawn in sport. When our teenagers and children watch a sport whereby tibias and fibulas being broken are considered by old-school footballers as “part of the game”, you know that something is amiss.
I refer in particular to Nigel De Jong’s horrible tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa (00:39-00:32) in the Premier League match between Manchester City and Newcastle United. As the video clearly shows, De Jong’s right leg goes in behind Ben Arfa’s standing leg- the ball is nowhere in sight. The resulted in a double break of the French’s winger’s left foot. The same left foot that he has been known to produce bits of brilliance and touches of magic.
Ramires was lucky; Hatem Ben Arfa not soIt is a terrible shame for Hatem Ben Arfa, a talented footballer who has scarcely reached his peak. It is very seldom that footballers rejuvenate their careers after breaking two major bones in the leg. For the uninitiated, feel the hardest bone in on your leg below your knee. Yeah, that’s the shinbone. That, and the bone that supports it, were the bones that were broken in Ben Arfa’s leg.
What was equally appalling was the fact that referee Martin Atkinson waved play on after the tackle and told Ben Arfa to get up. Click on the link above and judge for yourselves if the tackle did the warrant a yellow card at the very least from a soft referee.
This has not been the first injury to a professional footballer as a result of Nigel De Jong’s recklessness on the pitch. Stuart Holden and Xabi Alonso were two other victims of De Jong’s unnecessary aggression. At least both referees showed consideration to the health of the stricken footballers by stopping play, something Atkinson failed to do. Even so, both referees Howard Webb and Turkish counterpart Cuneyt Cakir were vilified for their performances.
Let’s bring up the case of Karl Henry now. Karl Henry plays in the same position (defensive midfielder) as Nigel De Jong. Although he’s not as globally well known as the Manchester City hatchet man, Karl Henry learned his trade from the Stoke City School of Hard Knocks under Tony Pulis.
The first of a series of indiscretions by Henry occurred in the match against Newcastle at Molineux. Henry was only booked five minutes from time after a series of persistent tackles on Joey Barton- 7 in total. Half of those tackles were bookable and it amazed me that he was still on the pitch after an hour’s play.
If this can be called challenge... Karl Henry attempts to win the ball from Simon DaviesWhile the issue of Bobby Zamora’s leg break after Karl Henry’s challenge was a lot more debatable, it can also be argued that Henry himself put too much gusto into the challenge. The tackle on Jordi Gomez (if THAT can be accurately described as a tackle) on the other hand mirrored De Jong’s on Ben Arfa.
The similarities stop there. Karl Henry has sent his sympathies to Zamora for the striker’s broken leg and expressed regret over his lunge on Jordi Gomez. Even the thuggish Ryan Shawcross left the field in tears when he broke Jack Wilshere’s leg last season. As for De Jong, Hatem Ben Arfa has been lying in hospital for a week and has yet to hear from him. As for fracturing Stuart Holden’s leg, De Jong indignantly said that “such offences are part of football”. No compunction whatsoever from him.
Any footballer with a sense of professionalism and decency can understand what a leg or ankle break does to you. With the exception of the gritted Henrik Larsson, there are few footballers (even in today’s age) who have fully recovered from a leg break and Hatem Ben Arfa is only 23.
Bert van Marwijk has criticised Nigel De Jong’s tackle, labeling it as “unacceptable” and that “Nigel has simply gone too far this time”. His proved the integrity of his words by dropping Nigel De Jong from Holland’s Euro 2012 qualifiers. Manchester City’s assistant manager Brian Kidd said post-match that “Nigel is as honest as the day is long”, defending his defensive midfielder. He must be kidding, pardon the pun. Either that or they must have the shortest days in Manchester.
You didn’t get real world class footballers like Paolo Maldini and Bobby Moore, just to name a couple, generating such negative publicity despite being defenders. Even Paul Scholes, who cannot make a clean tackle if all of Manchester United’s trophies depend on it, has never caused an injury to such a severity in his 16 year top flight career. Karl Henry himself said that tackling is an art. Unfortunately it’s one he, De Jong and many “footballers” today have yet to acquire.
To say that hard tackling does not belong in modern football may be a knee-jerk reaction, but the Football Association definitely has to review what actions may be taken should a poorly-timed tackle jeopardise the safety of a footballer. While there are some Match of the Day and talkSPORT pundits (Suffolk drunkard Alan Brazil the most notable of them) who defend the tackles, there has to be an accountability and responsibility to be accepted as a result of this. I quote a Dutch tabloid as well as Marc Duffy:
“That's not the point. If you are driving a new sports car and decide to drive through a village at 200MPH you aren't doing that to deliberately kill a child, but you would be responsible for your actions if that were to happen."
Billy Bremner’s (right) rash tackling often got him into trouble with opponents
The lunges by Karl Henry and De Jong debatably belong in the era of Billy Bremner and Graeme Souness, but even they stood up and were accountable for their actions (for the most part, at least). In that aspect, Nigel De Jong and Martin Atkinson have much to account for.
