Manchester United were ahead in the tie, 2-1 via a Sergio Ramos own goal, when the unspeakable happened. The ball was cleared from the United penalty area and what seemed to be an inoccuous collision between Luis Nani and Alvaro Arbeloa ended with the Portugese international walking down the tunnel and having to watch the rest of the game from the changing room, following a red card being shown by Cakir. I say inoccuos because there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. Nani looked in control with his eyes on the ball, poised and ready to start another United conter-attack, when Arbeloa ran in from behind him to get contact on the ball before Nani. Having already his leg in the air, Arbeloa's run created contact between the Spaniard's ribs and Nani's studs and a confusing melee insued.
The general insight from Andy Townsend, the commentator for ITV, was that it was perhaps an accidental foul and maybe a yellow card should be shown to Nani. As ITV played the replay once again, a humongous roar came through the speakers of my television, and I assumed something had happened that had aggrevated the fans and indeed it had. The cameras cut back to the live action to reveal what all the hulla-balloo was about; the referee showing Nani a red card.
No amount of obsenities flying through my brain would be enough to describe or convey my anger and outrage at the decision, so instead I reverted to a savage-like scream that echoed through my bones and channeled my rage into stomping the floor with an obsene level of aggression. My beloved Manchester United were in control of the game and, as per usual, Sir Alex Ferguson had got the tactics spot-on. By choosing to send off Nani, he essentially handed the tie to Madrid on a silver plater. Afterall, it's hard enough to play against The Merengues with 11 men, let alone with 10 men.
In the words of Gordon Strachen at the moment it happened, 'Incredible. A very, very poor decision by the referee!' Strangely enough, Gordon's team mate in the 1999 treble winning side Roy Keane, had a completely different view point. He saw it from the direction that Nani's foot was raised above hip height and was therefore creating a dangerous environment for the other players on the pitch. In my opinion that's completely wrong. Nani couldn't see Arbeloa and therefore had no intention of harming him, unfortunately, letter of the law says that there doesn't have to be intent for a red card to be shown. This creates a tough situation for players because they can be involved in a 50/50 challenge, and because their studs are up but not coming into contact with the opponent, can be red carded. 20 or 30 years ago, I situation like this would never have happened because it was a contact sport. I believe that because players are worth so much these days the physicality has gone out of the game creating an environment for easy yellow and red cards, whereas back then the player would only recieve a ticking off.
I appreciate the letter of the law, but surely the referee has to be given room for common sense. If he can think about Nani's position along side the challenge he committed, I'm in no doubt that Nani would just have been given a yellow card. For me the rule books are being tweeked to help the referees out, however the rules don't give the referee room to use his head in coming to a decision, instead of sticking solely to the rule book.
A decision very similar to this, that ruined the game, happened in the League Cup final between Swansea and Bradford City. Following a 20 pass move, Swansea midfielder Jonathan De Guzman was brought down by the Bradford goalkeeper, resulting in a penalty and a red card being shown to Matt Duke. The decision is a clear one when you look at the rule book, but this was a cup final, the first for either club, and sending the keeper off with 30 minutes still to go completely kill the game. Yes Swansea were 3-0 up at the time but the game was by no means over and in my opinion, a yellow card would have serficed.
Cuneyt Cakir has a track record of sending off English players and players for English clubs. This could just be coincidence, but surely the cultral difference of football styles in Europe and England has to be addressed by UEFA in teaching the referees to be more intelligent when making important decisions as to match defining situtions.
Trigger happy Cakir
I think that in the big games referees have got to use their common sense and judgement to come to a fair decision, both for the teams and the interest of the match. In giving a yellow card and not red, you send both a message to the player that it's their last chance, but also allow the game to remain fair and equal.
