Accidents will happen and FA have to accept that
ACCIDENTS happen. They occur in your house, on the street, at work. You can drop a mug, slip in the shower, stub your toe.
Mostly, it’s human error. In sport, it can be just one of those things.
Unless, of course, you’re Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen – but that’s another story.
In contact sports – such as football and rugby – there are bound to be injuries.
Cuts, bumps and bruises are normal scars of war – seldom are they horrible leg breaks and dislocated ankles – such as the one Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott suffered at Elland Road last week.
The Reds youngster showed plenty of class in his reaction to the tackle by Pascal Struijk.
Within hours, he had released a statement refusing to blame the Dutchman and recognising the incident for what it was.
He added to this when Leeds’ appeal for a red card dished out by Craig Pawson was rejected.
“Sorry about this Pascal,” he wrote on Instagram, “I think it’s wrong! But it’ll soon blow over brother and you’ll be back in no time smashing it again. Keep positive.”
At the time, Pawson didn’t even think it was a foul.
Watching it live on television, neither did I. I thought it was a clean tackle. It wasn’t until Mo Salah moved towards his teammate and co-commentator Gary Neville said, “Oh no”, as play continued that the problem surfaced.
Thankfully, Elliott’s injury isn’t going to require the kind of surgery deemed necessary after Everton’s Andre Gomes suffered a nasty leg break following a challenge by Spurs’ Heung-min Son in November 2019.
It was another one of those moments where you watch the screen through your fingers after the severe nature of the injury becomes evident. Though the incident itself didn’t appear too bad.
“Martin Atkinson’s initial instinct was a yellow card,” said pundit Kevin Kilbane on Match of the Day 2 that night. “We all know what can happen when we step on to a football pitch.
“Any challenge can have a consequence.”
Then-toffees boss Marco Silva said: “I saw it all live. I don’t need to watch it back on television. When Son made that tackle, for sure, it wasn’t with intent.”
In fact, Spurs later made a successful appeal against the dismissal.
Of course, referees can get caught up in the moment. Just like everyone else. To my mind, Pawson is one of the best.
And while dismissing Leeds’ midfielder was understandable, how can it be right that this, too, wasn’t overturned, now that emotions have settled?
There has to be a realisation that accidents happen.
That sometimes, despite the best efforts of everyone involved not to indulge in foul play, unsavoury incidents are a by-product of contact sport.
The purpose of this piece isn’t to criticise anyone involved last Sunday.
It’s more to suggest that if there hasn’t been any foul play – and it’s very difficult to get away with anything truly bad these days with the scrutiny – that there has to be a grown-up reaction to it.
That the FA have to be brave enough to accept that accidents, nasty ones, can take place.
It’s inevitable.
“The majority of tackles similar to this one don’t generate the consequences this one did,” said Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa.
Struijk was condemned, and still is, by the injury, not the offence.
It shouldn’t be like that. His red card should be rescinded – and the process, such as it is, reviewed.
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