So Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany is set for a four match ban after the FA rejected his club’s appeal against the controversial red card he received in their 3-2 defeat at the hands of local rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup third round. Referee Chris Foy brandished the red card after Kompany’s lunge at Nani was deemed a dangerous two-footed challenge, soon after Wayne Rooney had given United the lead at Eastlands with a superlative header just 10 minutes in. Being 1-0 down as well as now being a man down, City’s chances of prevailing had taken a crushing blow and you could sort of sense that perhaps it wasn’t going to be their day.

Replays showed though that, whilst Kompany had gone in two-footed with perhaps one of his feet raised slightly off the ground, there was actually no real malice in the tackle and in fact, the Belgian had taken the ball and not even touched Nani on his way. Yet still, by the letter of the law, the ref had no option but to dismiss him. It got me thinking though. Is this rule perhaps getting a little out of hand now?

When I think back to when I first got into football, in the early 90’s, things were so different. In those days you had to have committed a serious atrocity to get a red card. It would have to have been something super dangerous or malicious. Or it would have to be evident that you had gone in with the intent to injure or hurt your opponent. And even then, referees were always reluctant to wave a red card. I remember, quite often I used to wonder whether perhaps they might have left their red cards at home by accident. Football was indeed very different back in those days in terms of discipline. Players were more often than not given the benefit of the doubt. If a player was already on a yellow card and then committed another yellow card offence, they wouldn’t necessarily be sent off for it. Referees were usually lenient and tended to let players off until they had no other alternative.

This kind of leniency and sympathy toward players has been completely stamped out of the game. The attitude of referees these days is virtually the opposite. If the letter of the law states that the player has committed a sending off offence then referees have no hesitation in pulling out the red card, as Kompany found out in the cup tie. Foy didn’t even take a moment to weigh up his options. But is this right? Surely we cannot allow the art of tackling to be completely extradited from the game. It used to be a case of; you were allowed to go in as hard as you want, provided you won the ball. It wouldn’t matter if your opponent was left hurt after the challenge, provided you won the ball, it was legal. And even if you didn’t win the ball, as long as you went in with the intention of getting it, even if you were late, you would tend to escape without a yellow card.

My how things have changed. The only way to be safe these days is to not make any tackles at all. I think the main reason why the game was so different back in the early 90’s was that in those days, a lot of it was left down the referee’s discretion. So the ref had to essentially use his own judgement to decide whether to send a player off or not or to decide what is a bookable offence. The problem with this system though was that it created all kinds of inconsistencies. Some referees would be harsher than others and a tackle that was deemed to be a red card offence in one game, might only be given as a free kick in another game, so it was a bit of a lottery. It caused some infuriating situations. And even within the same game, you would see referees send a player off one minute and then later a very similar tackle would be made and not even a booking would be given.

That is why we are where we are today. The capacity for referees to use their own judgement or discretion in certain instances has been completely taken out of the game. That power has been removed from the hands of the officials, so much so that a referee is now essentially just a robot for the FA, making all decisions by the letter of the law and not using their own personal judgement. To be honest, this probably has made the game fairer to a certain extent, as all players are in the same boat and should be clear on what would be considered a red card and what wouldn’t. It is a lot more consistent now than it was in the past and referees are generally in tune with one another. It may have also reduced the number of serious injuries caused by reckless or dangerous tackles too, which can only be a good thing.

But there are undoubtedly occasions, like the Kompany incident, where you’re left thinking, if only the referee had just been allowed to apply a little discretion to say, well he went for the ball and there no was no malicious intent, therefore I’m not going to send him off. But referees have been instructed not to behave in this way and Foy was probably thinking, if I don’t send him off here I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do to the FA after the match.

It seems rather sad in a way that it has come down to this. How different the game is now in comparison to how it was 15 years ago can be reflected by the character of some of the players, past and present. For instance, if a Vinnie Jones or a Roy Keane were to be playing in this era, they would probably get sent off in virtually every game. Gone are the days when you would be able to get away with roughing up an opponent in the way that Jones and Keane used to. If you compare that mould of player to today’s midfield generals you can see the difference. The likes of Nigel de Jong, Alex Song and Oriol Romeu, they are a completely different kettle of fish. Although, they are essentially ball winning midfielders who look to break up the play and protect their team’s back fours, they are  very rarely be seen going in for a dangerous tackle or maliciously hacking down an opponent.

That really epitomizes the way the game has changed over the years. If we’re not careful, the art of tackling will be extinguished from the game and that will be a sad thing. Football is supposed to be a contact sport at the end of the day. Tackling is a key part of it. If you cannot tackle your opponent when they have the ball, how can you be expected to defend your goal? It’s a competitive game and unfortunately injuries will occasionally occur. But that’s part and parcel of what football is all about. The hunger for success, the will to win and the willingness to put your body on the line if need be to help your team to success.

I think, to a certain extent, referees should be allowed to use their discretion and judge every tackle individually before deeming it a red card offence. They should be allowed to take certain factors into consideration, like for instance, was the tackle made with malicious intent? Was it dangerous and could it have caused injury to the opposing player? Was the player going for the ball? Did they actually touch the opposing player? If referees were allowed to take these aspects into consideration before brandishing a red card then situations like what happened to Kompany in the Manchester derby would be occur a lot less frequently.

But it’s very hard to see the FA ever allowing the referee’s discretion or common sense to creep back into the game. As we all know, they like to have the final say in everything that happens in English football, whether that is for the good of the game or not.