Uruguay’s Luis Suárez exploits penalty clause
From desperation to joy, from hope to despair, all of the emotions of World Cup football were on display in Johannesburg on Friday night, and there was a bit of controversy too.
Uruguay forward Luis Suárez’s split-second decision to handle Dominic Adiyiah’s header on the goalline at the end of extra time was rightly punished with a penalty and a red card, but Asamoah Gyan’s subsequent skied penalty kick, followed by Ghana’s shoot-out exit, raised questions over the severity of the punishment. Should it have been more?
Former referee Graham Poll thinks so.
“The clause in law under which Suárez was dismissed was the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity,” said the man who officiated at the 2006 World Cup, where he infamously awarded three yellow cards to Croatia’s Josip Šimunić before sending him off.
“The offence carries a one-match ban, leaving Suárez free to play in the final should Uruguay beat the Netherlands. The problem is that Ghana were denied a goal, not just the opportunity to score one. A penalty goal in these circumstances would be appropriate.”
Perhaps, but condemnation of Suarez hasn’t been forthcoming, with the forward himself now claiming that “the Hand of God now belongs to me”, and BBC pundit Alan Shearer insisting that “any player” in the Uruguayan’s situation would have done the same thing.
“Sometimes in training I play goalkeeper so it was worth it,” the 23-year-old has joked.
“There was no alternative but for me to do that and when they missed the penalty I thought 'It is a miracle and we are alive in the tournament', now we are in the semi-finals although I was very sad because no-one likes to be sent off.”
Ghana’s John Pantsil has insisted that neither he nor his team-mates would have done the same thing had the incident happened at the other end of the pitch, but that seems to be the easiest statement to make in the circumstances, and one borne out of the high drama and emotion of the final African team exiting the first African World Cup after being heavily backed by the whole continent.
“Saying we cheated Ghana is too harsh a word to use,” said Uruguay boss Óscar Tabárez.
“Yes he stuck his hand out but it's not cheating. It was instinctive. When there is a handball in the penalty area there is a red card and the player is thrown out of the game. The player instinctively reacted and was thrown out of the match and he can't play the next match. What else do you want?”
More, it seems, with calls echoing Poll’s becoming louder and louder in the immediate aftermath of the match, but ‘penalty goals’ would surely be too difficult rule to implement.
The ‘professional foul’ rule as it stands – and Suárez was the most professional of fouls – ensures that the offender is sent off and a penalty awarded, a sufficient enough punishment most of the time, but when the offence occurs in the final seconds of extra time, meaning that the penalty awarded will be the final kick of the match, then obviously the offending team don’t suffer as much as they haven’t got long to play with a man less. Gyan missed his kick, and so Uruguay didn’t suffer at all – they gained from Suárez’s save.
The drama of Ghana’s exit ensured that this was a very emotive subject, but surely bringing in ‘penalty goals’ for professional fouls would be too difficult a rule to implement. What happens if the ball isn’t going in the goal when the player handles it? Or if the denial of a goalscoring opportunity isn’t actually that good an opportunity? Spain’s David Villa was brought down in the Paraguay penalty area when he looked like scoring on Saturday night, but what if that was Carles Puyol (or, on current form, Fernando Torres)? Would they be as likely to score?
All are questions that would have to be answered, but the introduction of this particular rule looks unlikely.
Indeed, Fifa still have a much more pressing rule to implement before they even think about addressing this one, as Suárez moment wasn’t the most controversial thing to happen on a goalline at this World Cup.
Just ask Frank Lampard and 52 million English people.
Tags: