some canadian guys writing about soccer

During Rollins’s epic 24-hour blog-a-thon over at The 24th Minute (which is still going on, as of this writing), we got into a bit of a discussion on a live blog about Craig Bellamy’s sending-off over the weekend. For those who may have missed it, Bellamy picked up two yellows in Man City’s 3-3 draw with Bolton, with the second yellow being shown for simulation (a.k.a. diving). The decision was labeled “harsh” by many, and referee Mark Clattenburg is under fire for a comment he allegedly made to City staff at halftime — “How do you work with Craig Bellamy all week?” — that suggested to some that the ref may have “had it in” for Bellamy, leading to the second yellow.

Let’s remove the specifics of this situation from our discussion, though. I’m less concerned with Bellamy and Clattenburg per se than I am with the idea that, in many people’s minds, you need to do a lot more to earn a second yellow than a first one.

Now, variations on this theme are seen in all sports. Is a penalty or a foul that gets called five minutes into the game going to be called the same way in the last five minutes? Are decisions made during regular season play going to be made the same way during the playoffs? According to the letter of the law, of course all decisions by officials should be held to the exact same standard at all times, regardless of the circumstances. But in reality, officials are humans. They’re swayed by pressure and noise and all those outside factors just as much as the athletes are.

Soccer referees, in particular, have it rough: in fact, they’ve got the toughest officiating job in all of pro sports.

So this is not a knock on referees (why would I do such a thing? As I’ve mentioned many times, I’m a long-time ref myself). Nor is this some hackneyed call for “consistency” or some other nebulous concept that people desperately grab at when they feel they’ve been wronged.

All I want to say is: a yellow card should be a yellow card. Period.

Say Team A is up by a goal, late in the game. A member of Team B, after a referee’s decision, boots the ball in frustration. The referee shows Player B a yellow card. Then, a minute later, a member of Team A kicks the ball away from an opponent after the whistle has blown, in an attempt to waste time. The precedent has been set for a player being cautioned for such unsporting behaviour. The referee should show that yellow card to Player A, regardless of whether or not he’s already sitting on a yellow. If he didn’t want to be sent off, he shouldn’t have acted stupidly in the first place.

Too often, this sense of a second yellow being hallowed ground, only to be covered by the “worst of the worst” offenders, gives players who pick up an early yellow a sense of impunity — a belief that they can get away with more due to the ref’s reluctance to send them off for a perceived ticky-tack second cautionable offence. This is, of course, the complete opposite of the intended effect of an early caution.

So what’s the solution? You can go one of two ways with it.

Either we change our expectations, and go with the flow if and when a ref sends a player off for two borderline-yet-justifiable cautions. Or we go back to a time when a yellow card actually meant something — a seriously hard challenge, a deliberate act of malice — and we might see a reduction in ticky-tack sendings-off. Then again, we may also see a rise in the aforementioned “playing with a sense of impunity.”

Oh, also, I think referees really need to start handing out more yellows for dives, rather than just letting play continue, but that’s another story for another day.

So maybe, ultimately, this is a hackneyed call for consistency. But my point is that if, in the referee’s mind, a player has committed an offence worthy of a yellow card, he should show it to him, whether or not he’s already received a caution on the day. Our debates should be focused on the accuracy of the referee’s decisions themselves, rather than questioning whether it’s “right” to send a player off when they receive two yellows, because that’s a non-starter… of course it’s right. Two yellows equals a red. End of story.

What equals a yellow in the first place? Now that’s the question…