Villarreal have cried foul after a 1-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid because the goal was scored while one of their players was lying on the ground in the area.
Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini and president Fernando Roig say that Atletico should have kicked the ball out of play when forward Guillermo Franco went to ground on the goal line. To add to Villarreal frustration, it was the prostrate Franco who played Fabiano Eller onside as he headed over the line.
Last season, Arsenal’s Premiership match against Tottenham caused a showdown between managers Arsene Wenger and Martin Jol. Wenger was furious when Spurs didn’t kick the ball out of player after two of his players were injured in the build-up to a Robbie Keane goal.
It has long been established “fair play” for teams to kick the ball out of play if an opposing player is down injured. Yet FIFA noted after the World Cup that some players were deliberately interrupting games by feigning injury. FIFA describes it as a “deplorable habit“. But should players be responsible for putting the ball out in such circumstances? Or should stopping play be at the referee’s discretion alone?
Simon Baskett is a Reuters sports correspondent based in Madrid
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3 comments so far
Players feigning injury to break up the flow of a game, particularly when the opposition is in a good attacking position, is one of the worst aspects of Spanish football.
In this instance the fact Franco actually played Eller onside for the only goal was heavy punishment. But he continued the rest of the half before being subbed, and managed to put in a two-footed studs-up challenge on Peter Luccin before he went.
Villarreal’s Diego Forlan summed it up best. He said he would have done the same as Eller given the chance. He criticised his own team mates for not concentrating as Atletico played on.
Forlan of course played at Man Utd and I don’t know if it is true or not but I have heard Alex Ferguson acutally sent a letter to all Premiership clubs telling them his players would not kick the ball out if a player was down injured, unless the referee called it.
Quite right too, unless it is blatantly obvious someone is seriously hurt.
- Posted by MarkSimon,
it’s the refs call, no doubt about it. He could have rescinded the goal if he thought that Franco was genuinely injured and that his injury was the sole reason that Eller was onside for that goal.
I’ve been arguing for a long time that football needs to review and adapt its rules to remove these issus from the game. Of course, they’re not paying me to do it so whatever I say doesn’t really have much impact (even if it feels good to write about it on my blog).
Simon, you’re based in Spain, right? Can you give us an idea of how the Spanish media is reacting to the stadium incidents in the Tottenham v Sevilla game?
- Posted by Ahmed BilalHi Ahmed,
Yes I am based in Spain, in Madrid. As to the incidents at the Sevilla v Spurs game, there was relatively little coverage in the Spanish media. The problems were viewed as minor and largely drink-related. The response of the police was viewed as standard behaviour in the face of what was regarded as aggressive behaviour from a minority of the 4,000 or so Spurs fans, with the vast majority causing no problems.
The English media are far more sensitive about these sort of incidents, whereas in Spain the view is that the behaviour was little different from the alcohol-related problems that some English tourists cause on the Costas every year.
One issue perhaps is that English fans are the only ones to visit Spain in such massive numbers and that the stadiums and police are not always ready for the influx.
- Posted by Simon Baskett