I’m writing against the grain of popular opinion; I think that Ben Williams got it spot on in sending off Sydney FC defender Nikola Petković in the FFA Cup quarter final against Adelaide.
Since the Sydney FC vice-captain launched his boot into Fabio Ferreira, he has received a lot of support from the football fraternity.
Graham Arnold called it an embarrassment, match commentators Mike Cockerill and Robbie Slater said it was harsh, while Fox Sports pundit Mark Bosnich called for it to be rescinded.
The general complaints included Petković was making an attempt to control the ball, that Petković tried to pull out before contact and that the Williams allowed advantage to be played before issuing the red card.
If these are the best complaints that the above can think of, they need to head down to their nearest Specsavers for an eye check.
For starters, no-one from Adelaide United accused Petković of making a deliberate attempt to injure Ferreira. However, the camera shows Petković’s foot got nowhere near the ball and his studs landed in Ferreira’s leg.
The contact was high, late and contained sufficient force to injure an opposing player. While the tackle was not deliberate, it’s dangerous play, which is a red card. If the action of the Sydney FC defender was repeated in a situation where the ball was being played on the floor, he would have broken Fabio Ferreira’s leg.
The Petković challenge is similar to the one that saw Nani sent off in a Champions League tie two years ago.
As Roy Keane explained on ITV at the time, players need to be aware of other players on the field and dangerous acts, no matter how intentional or unintentional they are, are red card offences. It applies in the action of Petković that while not deliberate, it was dangerous and gave the referee justification to send him off.
Secondly, at no time did Nikola Petković try and properly pull out of that challenge. If he had, his leg would have been bent and the toes of his boot would have been facing down. As both Fox Sports angles show, the leg of Petković was slightly bent while the studs of his boot were clearly facing out and he continued to zone in at a reasonable speed.
Again, while Petković didn’t set out to deliberately injure Ferreira, there’s no way he made a conscious attempt to pull out. He left his studs up and continued at pace to make a challenge.
Ben Williams, from his angle at the centre circle just behind Fabio Ferreira, would have seen a straight leg with studs up flying into an opposing player.
Finally, all arguments against the attack lost their legitimacy when belligerents failed to correctly define the rule of advantage which gives referees the opportunity to continue play. Law 5 of the FIFA Rule Book does state that in most cases, play should be halted if the referee wishes to expel a player from the ground.
However, referees have the ability to allow advantage if the attacking team has an opportunity to score provided they immediately issue a red card once play has stopped. As the video clip below shows, once the challenge was made, the ball fell to Cirio who ran to the by-line before knocking the ball back to Jeggo who sent his shot into Sydney Harbour.
No sooner had the ball sailed over the crossbar did Ben Williams immediately head for Nikola Petković and issue a red card to him. Adelaide actually created a reasonable goal-scoring chance, which gave Williams latitude to allow advantage before issuing a red card.
I have uploaded the Adelaide-Sydney highlights (controversy starts about 1:03), along with the Roy Keane video explaining why Nani was sent off, so you can make your own judgement.
Nikola Petkovic was not being deliberately malice but his challenge was high, late and could have been avoided. For that reason, Ben Williams got his decision spot on.
Twitter: @JohnHunt1992
Leonardo
Roar Guru
Even with 12 men SFC weren't going to win. You can do all the good recruiting, have a great pre-season and put together a good squad, but you get tight scheduling after a Sydney derby and a bad refereeing performance and your 2 central defenders suspended and then you are out of the FFA Cup and facing a huge game against Roar in Brisbane a few days later. That's why its a 27 week competition and you are worthy Premiers if you are top of the pile at the end of it all. The Grand Final Championship Golden Toilet Seat is just a bonus.
nai
Guest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShmXMe20V0M reverse angle of red card
Kaks
Roar Guru
It can be interpreted as a yellow, it can be interpreted as a Red. IMO it was a red card. He may have been going for the ball and they may have both arrived at the same time, however the fact remains that Petkovic went into the challenge studs up and it was extremely dangerous.
mattq
Guest
can't see how the FFA can make this statement after the MRP decision. Was this statement made before or after the MRP decision? If before then poor management by the FFA. If after, this makes no sense and a complete mockery of their own MRP!?! FWIW it was a red.
TimO
Guest
Also it's worth noting that accordinging to Carussca in the local paper today, Fabio Ferria has also picked up a bad knock to the thigh thanks to that tackle
TimO
Guest
I'm glad someone else agrees with me that it was worthy of a red thought it may of just been my adelaide biasedness getting in the way. I'm actually really disapointed with the media fall out, the way they've carried on you'd think Adelaide were getting absolutely dominated in the 2nd half... even though imo we had the better chances prior and post sending off.
Ginger71
Guest
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
The fact that even with replays and the benefit of time to cogitate there are still varying opinions as to the awarding of the card goes someway to show how tough it is for referees to get it right in the heat of the moment with only one chance to view the contact and from but one angle.
Guest
Guest
Quote from Damien de Bohun as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald: "In the view of the director of referees and that of the assessors, the decision by Ben Williams to show a red card to a Sydney FC player in last night's FFA Cup match was not warranted." There might have been additional reasons (I don't know), but its clear from the above that the FFA (or at least Damien de Bohun, the FFAs director of referees and the FFA assessors) disagreed with the red card.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Agree with Gareth here.
Gareth
Guest
It's possible that Williams was stood down for other reasons. Missing Necevski's handball outside the box, and Gameiro's tackle was worse than Petkovic's imo but only received a yellow. Even if he got the red right, the rest of the game had just as many poor decisions made.
Guest
Guest
Seems that, in addition to several prominent coaches and commentators, the FFA strongly disagree that it should have been a red - as evidenced by them standing down Ben Williams for the weekend (doubt they made that decision lightly). Given the MRP requires unanimity to overturn a decision (and the FFA cannot overrule the MRP), it looks like the cards stack up as follows: People who agree with you - one (and to give you the benefit of the doubt, possibly two or three) member of the MRP People who disagree with you - Mark Bosnich, Mike Cockerill, Robbie Slater, Graham Arnold, the majority of the viewing public... and the FFA
mattq
Guest
MRP says otherwise Punter. Glad yourself, other players, commentators, bench warmers or the crowd are not responsible for such important decisions!
mattq
Guest
MRP says otherwise Punter. Gald yourself, other players, commentators, bench warmers or the crowd are not responsible for such important decisions!
Punter
Guest
I see both players arriving at the same time!!!! Don't see the red card there, no reaction from other players, no reaction from commentators, no reaction from either benches, nor the crowd. Not a red.