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Is football no longer a contact sport? A penalty discussion.


WhiskeyJar
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Football is still very much a contact sport, and when it comes to activity in the box there is loads of pushing, pulling, blocking and so on. Just watch most corners!

 

The big change in the game is that if there is contact with a striker’s foot, most of them would tend to exaggerate the contact, go over, and win a penalty for their team. In fact, in recent years there has been a trend of many strikers ‘drawing’ contact with the defender or onrushing goalkeeper, and we see this with a lot of straight legs or trailing legs as they go over.

 

To me I see two opposite things happening at the same time. Upper body fouls are getting a lot worse and it’s now close to wrestling; while lower body fouls, especially any slight contact with the striker’s foot, are being grossly exaggerated.

 

Some of the refs are rubbish and can’t seem to latch on to this basic reality, but on the other hand, with so many players willing to cheat each other and gain advantage from the slightest contact, the game gets the refereeing decisions it deserves.

 

The latest example in a long list of potential incidents is Wenger, yesterday, moaning about the Hazard penalty. It was a penalty, but Hazard exaggerated the contact. While Wenger was blowing a fuse over that, he said nothing about Wilshere’s dive by leaving his leg trailing. Pah!

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Don't think either was a penalty , but Holgate at least meant to slow Lallana down whereas Lewin just deliberately ran into Lovren who raised his hands like I would if somebody barged into me in Tesco.

 

Also think looking at these incidents endlessly in slow-mo and frame-by-frame can often skew the perception.

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