Legal confusion

Ideally, there should be some kind of consistency in the way referees deal with fouls.

Seldom has any major soccer tournament thrown up so much controversy so quickly as the European Championship. Hardly has one occurred than another has followed it. And none so heatedly debated as the goal which Holland scored to put them ahead against Italy. Let me remind you. The excellent attacking Dutch midfielder, Wesley Sneijder, destined later to score a spectacular goal of his own, shot from outside the box after a weak punch out by the Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, who collided with his right-back, Roma’s Christian Panucci. The ball reached Ruud van Nistelrooy, the big Dutch centre-forward, alone in the box and patently standing in an off-side position. Van Nistelrooy duly knocked it into the net and then appeared to turn and look at the linesman, as if in doubt about the validity of his goal. But it stood. Given by the referee, Peter Frojdfeldt, when his linesman, Stefan Wittberg, perfectly placed to see what happened, kept his flag down.

Instant dispute. David Taylor, UEFA’s general secretary, firmly defended the decision, pointing to Law 11, saying, “Not many people, even in the game, and I include the players, know this interpretation.” He could say that again; he pursued: “Even though the defender was off the field because of his momentum, he is still deemed to be part of the game, and is therefore taken into consideration as one of the last two defending players. As a result, Van Nistelrooy was not nearer the opponent’s goal-line than the second last defender and therefore could not be in an offside position.”

In this somewhat convoluted justification he was supported by the chief of England’s referees, Keith Hackett: “The fact is the assistant was correct, the defender off the field is still regarded as active. Panucci went off through contact with his own goalkeeper. He is still considered part of the game.”

Taylor, who somewhat feebly offered in evidence a similar decision in a Swiss League game last season, surely damned himself and his whole argument, when he admitted that the law as it stands does not deal with such situations “directly,” but that the interpretation was “common knowledge among referees.” Eh? There was a classical Roman expression, Dura Lex Sed Lex, a hard law but the law, but according to Taylor, his interpretation is only that: and not the law at all!

Much more sensible, surely, was the response of a former World Cup referee, albeit himself a controversial one — remember those three yellow cards in Germany, given to the same player? — in the shape of Graham Poll. “Common sense will tell you that when a player is off the field he should then be deemed inactive and not considered for an offside offence. If the player off the field were an attacker rather than a defender, are UEFA honestly suggesting the assistant should flag for offside?”

If Taylor wants to have the offside law as it stands changed, he should try to do so with the law making body, the International Board. As things stand, all is confusion and bewilderment. Holland went on from that bizarre goal to score a couple more, each on the break, but to what extent did that opening goal unsettle the Italians and galvanise the Dutch?

This was not the only source of controversy in the tournament. The 1-1 draw between Austria and Poland in Vienna produced it in abundance. Loud in his protest was the hugely experienced Leo Beenhakker, once manager of a Dutch World Cup team, now the manager of Poland. He was furiously up in arms over the equalising Austrian goal which came breathlessly from a penalty in injury time. According to Beenhakker, it should never have been given. What happened was that Poland, which Beenhakker conveniently ignored, should already, arguably, have given a spot kick away. Pawel Golanski, on as a substitute, pulled the shirt of the Austrian captain, Andreas Ivanschitz.

Here, we immediately confront an ambiguity in the laws and their interpretation. Howard Webb, the English referee, bitterly and unfairly to be criticised by Beenhakker, could and arguably should have awarded a spot kick. Instead, he played what appeared to be the so-called advantage law which, of course, is not truly a law at all, allowing play to proceed. In the event, Austria derived no advantage, since Ivanschitz, challenged again, fell over. Yet Webb, previously, could have been justified in not only giving a spot kick, but flashing a red card at Golanski. The penalty which Webb did give came when Mariusz Lewandowski, in the Polish box, yanked the jersey of Sebastian Prodl. Certainly a foul, though the kind which in a surging, crowded penalty box, so often goes unpunished. Not this time; Webb duly pointed to the spot and veteran Ivica Vlastic, 38, put the kick away.

Beenhakker was outraged; quite ignoring the fact that when his own team had gone ahead, the goal was palpably offside. When the Polish striker, Saganowski, cut in from the right and shot, the ball reached the naturalised Brazilian Roger Guerreiro, almost in the goalmouth, with just a defender — not the ’keeper, who was behind him — between him and the goal. He tapped the ball in and the linesman, who should surely have ruled him offside, did nothing. So Poland led 1-0.

“Before the tournament,” orated Beenhakker, “UEFA gave us a very good DVD of what was allowed and what was not allowed. Of the wrestling that was going on, I didn’t see anything that has been punished before… Probably the referee sees something nobody else sees, and probably he wants to show he’s a big boy. I have been 43 years in the game, and I’ve never before had a problem with a referee (Oh, come on!), never been suspended, but I really can’t understand it.” Maybe by now he does.

Late in the game, when Croatia surprised Germany, the German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, whom I’ve admired since he was used as a frequent sub in the equivalent tournament in Portugal, was sent off for shoving an opponent, Jerko Leko, who’d tackled him from behind, to the ground. Afterwards, he was contrite. “I felt a pain on my already damaged ankle and reacted incorrectly.” Leko compounded the offence by dishonestly clapping his hands to his face, as if Schweinsteiger had struck him.

But if the German deserved to go off, how did France’s Claude Makelele contrive to stay on, after painfully swinging a forearm into two of his Dutch opponents’ faces? Surely, offences far more serious and potentially more dangerous than the one committed by Schweinsteiger. Ideally, there should be some kind of consistency in the way referees deal with fouls. Not least when an elbow is swung.