adidas Euro 2008 Sala Soccer Ball

#615535 Official match ball of the UEFA Futsal Championship

It is amazing how 2 similar incidents can be taken so differently in 2 different countries.

I am talking about how reckless tackles leading to serious injuries were treated in Spain and England.

2 weeks ago in the game between Recreativo Huelva and Real Madrid, Recreativo defender, Quique Alvarez was guilty of a crude tackle on Real's Arjen Robben as he caught him on his Achilles putting him out for 4 to 5 weeks.

The reaction in Spain was swift and vicious as they rounded on Alvarez with everybody from fans to press condemning the player for his actions. To the player's credit he did say that although it was an accident, it was still a bad challenge and whatever punishment comes his way, he deserves it.

In England, 1 week before the aforementioned incident, Arsenal's Eduardo Da Silva was a victim of a terrible tackle by Birmingham City's Martin Taylor that left him out for 9 months, out of the Euro2008 and his career in the balance.

The condemnation was not as bad as it was in Spain although some Croatian fans reportedly sent death threats to Taylor. But the saddest part as far as I am concerned is that Martin Taylor was made to look like the victim and not the perpetuator.

Everyone was coming out with lame excuses like he was not a dirty player or that the last time he was sent off was a long time ago. There were even messages of support for Taylor as if he was going through a traumatic experience. His manager Alex McLeish voiced concerns about his well-being as he felt that he had been affected by all the publicity surrounding the incident.

I do not condone the death threats in any way but I also do not feel that martin Taylor should be made out to be the victim as accident or not, that type of tackle had been frowned upon the whole season by referees as they issued out yellow cards and in a lot cases red cards for that type of challenge.

Charlie Nicholas had warned earlier on Soccer Saturday that someone risked being badly hurt by 1 of these challenges and he was proved right.

I do not think that Martin Taylor intentionally went out to injure Eduardo as only he can answer that with certainty because if I did then I would have approved of his being charged with grievous bodily harm but I do think that a 3 man suspension is way to inadequate for what he did.

His coming out to say that Arsenal manager made the situation even worse with his comments is another thing that did not go down well with me. I think he should be out as long as Eduardo is going to be possibly with half or no pay and tackles like that should be totally outlawed.

As long as players keep getting minor suspensions and fines they would feel it is okay to go in with dangerous tackles and unfortunately it happens far too often in England where hard tackling is sometimes mistaken for barbarity.

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