What's a red card offence?

[lovejoy]

The Laws of the Game state a player who commits an offence which denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, should be sent off. Do they also mention the "last man"? I was watching the games this wekend and couldn't understand why Foster wasn't sent off on the basis that Gabby had an open goal had he not been brought down.

There is nothing I can see in the rules that the red card depends on whether its a penalty or not. I've often heard the arguement from pundits that the ref deems the penalty punishment enough but I can't find this in the rule book.

Also in the QPR Chelsea game there was a view that since Terry was the "last man" Bosingwa shouldn't have been sent off. From what i could see SWP was on the edge of the area and while terry was nearer the goal line than him SWP could have got a shot off before Terry got to him. Therefore surely in being fouled SWP was denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Also SWP is fast and Terry slow. If the roles had been reversed and Terry was through and being chased by SWP, lets hypothesise SWP would have caught Terry before shooting then Terry's not been denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity. So for exactly the same situation there is a different outcome?
Seems nuts to me.

[D.boy]

In answer to the thread title

Shagging your neighbours/mates Mrs,
Shagging at the wrong time of the month,
Slipping it up the "wrong un" without her consent,

Almost forgot....... Shagging Bruces' daughter (if your Lee Hendrie).

[PeterWithesShin]

Isn't it something to do with denying an opponent a clear goal scoring opportunity and has nothing to do with being the last man? Then again, the rules change so much and so often it could be anything these days.

[PeterWithesShin]

I also can't understand why players are now getting booked for lifting their shirts up to show off a t-shirt underneath. The Albion fella and Balotelli both got done at the weekend. I thought you only got booked if you actually took your shirt off?

[Chris Smith]

Whatever the referee decides. Everyone seems to forget that human beings are involved and how they interprete an incident decides the sanction. Was it hand ball or ball to hand, was the challenge dangerous or aggressive, was the foul and abusive language directed at an individual or just a general rant?

[German James]

Alan Davies said the booking for shirt removal/raising is because it stops the sponsor's name from being seen. Cynical but plausible. I always thought that the red card would be for a player being brought down and denied a goal-scoring opportunity. Nothing to do with the last man doing the fouling. How you decide precisely what a goal-scoring opportunity is, is of course anyone's guess.

[Dave P]

Almost forgot....... Shagging Bruces' daughter (if your Lee Hendrie).

But not if your Darren Bent.

[eamonn]

The red cards in our and Chelsea's games must have made anyone who played football longer than ten years ago laugh their arses off.

It's that close to being a non-contact sport they may as well go the whole hog so at least there's no grey area.

[ktvillan]

The last man thing is a fallacy regularly spouted by lazy and ill-informed pundits and commentators (yes I mean you Alan Shearer).  There's no mention of it in the laws of the game, only the denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity.  I think it's fairly obvious that you can have a clear goalscoring opporunity even if there is a so called last man who might be nearer to the goal than the offender.  Clear goalscoring opportunity is of course open to interpretation and the laws add some details such as the player fouled should have been moving in the direction of the goal and if I recall correctly I think also something about being able to control the ball had the offence not occurred.  The reason/excuse given by Graham Poll for the ref not sending Vidic off in the Cup Final was that Gabby was not moving toward the goal (yer right) and therefore it wasn't a clear goal scoring opportunity.  On Saturday I guess the ref felt Gabby had poked the ball slightly away from goal and/or would not have got to the ball he poked through before the defender did.  I had no complaints with Dowd's interpretation of the Gabby pen on Saturday, whereas Poll's version of the cup final decision is bollocks.   

[Brend'Watkins]

The red cards in our and Chelsea's games must have made anyone who played football longer than ten years ago laugh their arses off.

It's that close to being a non-contact sport they may as well go the whole hog so at least there's no grey area.

Drogba's was the only one which was a red.  Two footed tackles have long since been outlawed.

Having said that, you have to put the Phil Dowd effect into any sending off equation.  The rule book is discarded and only his interpretation counts.