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Different Standards, and Penalties, for Rough Play
By ROB HUGHES
Published: October 5, 2010
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LONDON — Is soccer more violent in England than anywhere else?
Enlarge This Image
Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Nigel de Jong of the Netherlands kicked Xabi Alonso of Spain in the ribcage during the World Cup in July. He did not receive a red card for the foul.
The Times's soccer blog has the world's game covered from all angles.
Go to the Goal Blog
Readers' Comments
The question was implicit this week when Bert van Marwijk, the national coach for the Netherlands, dropped his own player, Nigel de Jong, after a tackle that broke the leg of his opponent during an English Premier League match.
“I’ve seen the pictures back,” van Marwijk told Dutch journalists. “It was a wild and unnecessary offense. He went in much too hard.” The tackle fractured the tibia and fibula of the French winger Hatem Ben Arfa.
“The funny thing is that the referee did not even show a yellow card,” said van Marwijk. “Apparently, there are other standards.”
There are also other opinions.
Brian Kidd, the assistant manager of Manchester City, which employs de Jong, defended the tackle that happened in the third minute of City’s league encounter against Newcastle United.
“There’s no malice in Nigel de Jong,” Kidd said at the postgame news conference. “Everybody knows that Nigel is as honest as the day is long. It’s so sad when you see that happen, and we hope it’s not too serious.”
Serious it certainly is. Ben Arfa, a 23-year-old playing just his fourth game on English soil at the start of what was intended to be a year’s loan from Marseille, underwent surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary on Monday.
No one can predict when he might return, or in what physical and mental shape, to resume his career.
The tackle that felled him was reckless by any definition. De Jong launched himself at the willowy Frenchman with both feet off the ground. With his left foot, the Dutchman connected with the ball. But he clattered into Ben Arfa with such force that his right knee snapped the trailing leg of Ben Arfa.
It was no foul, according to the referee, Martin Atkinson.
But when van Marwijk viewed the replays, he saw it as wild and unnecessary.
It conforms to the different prisms through which the English and some other Europeans view what is and what is not acceptable in the game of soccer.
Van Marwijk’s act of removing a player from his squad for two Euro 2012 qualifying matches over the coming week is unprecedented, so far as I can recall. His implication that “there are other standards” in England is not new.
A dozen years ago, during a meeting of the UEFA referees’ committee, the former World Cup referee Pierluigi Pairetto of Italy spoke of differing standards across Europe. “A foul is a foul,” he said, “even in England!”
The vehemence of that remark, made for the benefit of the sole Englishman at the table, comes back to my mind over and over again.
I thought of it in Barcelona 18 months ago when an English referee, Howard Webb, allowed a Dutch destroyer, Mark van Bommel, to repeatedly assault the legs and body of Lionel Messi.
I remembered it at the World Cup final in Johannesburg on July 11 when the same referee failed to send off de Jong for slamming into Xabi Alonso of Spain with a kick so high and so violent that most people in the stadium regarded it as a karate kick.
Webb subsequently admitted he should have shown the red card, but he didn’t want to spoil the final.
De Jong was known, before Manchester City imported him, to be a pit bull. At his previous club, Hamburg, he had two nicknames: Terrier and Das Rasenmäher. The second, The Lawnmower, was because of his habit of scything down anything, anyone, in front of him, even in training.
His countryman, van Marwijk, chose de Jong and van Bommel to “put steel” into the Dutch midfield. Van Marwijk selected de Jong for the World Cup despite another “tackle” that broke the leg of the American player Stuart Holden during a friendly international last March.
Malicious or not, the guy does appear to be dangerous. De Jong’s crash tackle last weekend was not, however, the worst in the English league.
That distinction went to Wolverhampton Wanderers captain, Karl Henry, who so willfully kicked at a Wigan opponent that it seemed almost miraculous that Jordi Gómez escaped serious harm.
The tackle was late, so forceful and so high that Gómez was sent cartwheeling into the air higher than an N.F.L. player. This time, the referee did show a straight red card. This time, even Henry’s manager, Mick McCarthy, agreed that the foul was unacceptable.
And this time — the second time in 10 games that Henry has been ejected for fearsome fouls — the offender offered his apologies. Not to the lucky opponent, but to his own colleagues for leaving them a man down.
Since those two games last weekend, there has been fierce debate around England’s national sport. Many have recalled the mistimed tackle from Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor that destroyed the ankle of Arsenal’s Croatian-Brazilian, Eduardo, in 2008.
Eduardo was never the same confident goal scorer again after that compound fracture.
Others speak of Ryan Shawcross, the Stoke City defender who last February broke the shin of another Arsenal player, Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey is still recuperating.
The perpetrators were contrite, but they returned to action months before the victims.
Visit any fan forum or Web site and you will read contradictory views on de Jong, Henry and career-threatening fouls, such as one by Chelsea’s Michael Essien last Sunday.
It is regarded as part of the game. Those who oppose it are derided as wimps in “a man’s game.”
But what really jars is the division between experienced coaches. Brian Kidd was a skilful player at the highest levels from 1963 to 1984. Bert van Marwijk played almost 500 games in the Dutch league between 1969 and 1988.
They have coached ever since. But where van Marwijk condemns de Jong’s foul play, Kidd lauds the performance. “If you want to be in contention to win the Premier League,” Kidd concluded, “you’ve got to be able to play, fight, and win ugly. We saw bits of all those qualities today.”
Different Standards, and Penalties, for Rough Play
By ROB HUGHES
Published: October 5, 2010
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LONDON — Is soccer more violent in England than anywhere else?
Enlarge This Image
Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Nigel de Jong of the Netherlands kicked Xabi Alonso of Spain in the ribcage during the World Cup in July. He did not receive a red card for the foul.
The Times's soccer blog has the world's game covered from all angles.
Go to the Goal Blog
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
The question was implicit this week when Bert van Marwijk, the national coach for the Netherlands, dropped his own player, Nigel de Jong, after a tackle that broke the leg of his opponent during an English Premier League match.
“I’ve seen the pictures back,” van Marwijk told Dutch journalists. “It was a wild and unnecessary offense. He went in much too hard.” The tackle fractured the tibia and fibula of the French winger Hatem Ben Arfa.
“The funny thing is that the referee did not even show a yellow card,” said van Marwijk. “Apparently, there are other standards.”
There are also other opinions.
Brian Kidd, the assistant manager of Manchester City, which employs de Jong, defended the tackle that happened in the third minute of City’s league encounter against Newcastle United.
“There’s no malice in Nigel de Jong,” Kidd said at the postgame news conference. “Everybody knows that Nigel is as honest as the day is long. It’s so sad when you see that happen, and we hope it’s not too serious.”
Serious it certainly is. Ben Arfa, a 23-year-old playing just his fourth game on English soil at the start of what was intended to be a year’s loan from Marseille, underwent surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary on Monday.
No one can predict when he might return, or in what physical and mental shape, to resume his career.
The tackle that felled him was reckless by any definition. De Jong launched himself at the willowy Frenchman with both feet off the ground. With his left foot, the Dutchman connected with the ball. But he clattered into Ben Arfa with such force that his right knee snapped the trailing leg of Ben Arfa.
It was no foul, according to the referee, Martin Atkinson.
But when van Marwijk viewed the replays, he saw it as wild and unnecessary.
It conforms to the different prisms through which the English and some other Europeans view what is and what is not acceptable in the game of soccer.
Van Marwijk’s act of removing a player from his squad for two Euro 2012 qualifying matches over the coming week is unprecedented, so far as I can recall. His implication that “there are other standards” in England is not new.
A dozen years ago, during a meeting of the UEFA referees’ committee, the former World Cup referee Pierluigi Pairetto of Italy spoke of differing standards across Europe. “A foul is a foul,” he said, “even in England!”
The vehemence of that remark, made for the benefit of the sole Englishman at the table, comes back to my mind over and over again.
I thought of it in Barcelona 18 months ago when an English referee, Howard Webb, allowed a Dutch destroyer, Mark van Bommel, to repeatedly assault the legs and body of Lionel Messi.
I remembered it at the World Cup final in Johannesburg on July 11 when the same referee failed to send off de Jong for slamming into Xabi Alonso of Spain with a kick so high and so violent that most people in the stadium regarded it as a karate kick.
Webb subsequently admitted he should have shown the red card, but he didn’t want to spoil the final.
De Jong was known, before Manchester City imported him, to be a pit bull. At his previous club, Hamburg, he had two nicknames: Terrier and Das Rasenmäher. The second, The Lawnmower, was because of his habit of scything down anything, anyone, in front of him, even in training.
His countryman, van Marwijk, chose de Jong and van Bommel to “put steel” into the Dutch midfield. Van Marwijk selected de Jong for the World Cup despite another “tackle” that broke the leg of the American player Stuart Holden during a friendly international last March.
Malicious or not, the guy does appear to be dangerous. De Jong’s crash tackle last weekend was not, however, the worst in the English league.
That distinction went to Wolverhampton Wanderers captain, Karl Henry, who so willfully kicked at a Wigan opponent that it seemed almost miraculous that Jordi Gómez escaped serious harm.
The tackle was late, so forceful and so high that Gómez was sent cartwheeling into the air higher than an N.F.L. player. This time, the referee did show a straight red card. This time, even Henry’s manager, Mick McCarthy, agreed that the foul was unacceptable.
And this time — the second time in 10 games that Henry has been ejected for fearsome fouls — the offender offered his apologies. Not to the lucky opponent, but to his own colleagues for leaving them a man down.
Since those two games last weekend, there has been fierce debate around England’s national sport. Many have recalled the mistimed tackle from Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor that destroyed the ankle of Arsenal’s Croatian-Brazilian, Eduardo, in 2008.
Eduardo was never the same confident goal scorer again after that compound fracture.
Others speak of Ryan Shawcross, the Stoke City defender who last February broke the shin of another Arsenal player, Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey is still recuperating.
The perpetrators were contrite, but they returned to action months before the victims.
Visit any fan forum or Web site and you will read contradictory views on de Jong, Henry and career-threatening fouls, such as one by Chelsea’s Michael Essien last Sunday.
It is regarded as part of the game. Those who oppose it are derided as wimps in “a man’s game.”
But what really jars is the division between experienced coaches. Brian Kidd was a skilful player at the highest levels from 1963 to 1984. Bert van Marwijk played almost 500 games in the Dutch league between 1969 and 1988.
They have coached ever since. But where van Marwijk condemns de Jong’s foul play, Kidd lauds the performance. “If you want to be in contention to win the Premier League,” Kidd concluded, “you’ve got to be able to play, fight, and win ugly. We saw bits of all those qualities today.”