Football’s Foul Play Must be Tackled

This week the discussion on bad tackles in football has again reared its ugly head. The crux was when Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong was dropped by the Dutch national team for a tackle that left Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Arfa with a broken leg on Sunday 3rd October.

Last weekend also saw Wolverhampton Wanderers captain Karl Henry sent off for a wild lunge.

Earlier on Thursday, FIFA executive committee member Michel D’Hooghe called on world soccer‘s governing body to send a message and make clear “brutal” tackles must be eradicated.

The consensus is that football is a contact sport and sometimes ‘bad things will happen’ especially if all clubs want to compete.


This is a cop out for FIFA, referees, clubs, managers, fans or anyone who agrees with this. Players have to be held responsible for their actions. If a player does something horrible, even if it’s a mistake, then there should be a serious penalty.


Supposing you were a top player in the Seria A, Bundesliga, La Liga or Premiership, would you relish playing against teams languishing in the bottom half of the league?

Would your performance be lessened by the knowledge that a bad tackle was imminent?

How to Stamp Out Bad Tackles

A simply methods that FIFA can apply to stamp out bad tackles;
Give the offending player a red card – and -

If a player is badly injured as a result of bad tackle – then the offender should be suspended for as long as the injured player is out of the game, plus one week.