FIFA On Taylor Ban Mission

It is absolutely pathetic. There are far more viscous and pre-meditated acts carried out on the pitch every game, by numerous players. The example of Ashley Cole last night was far more appalling than Martin Taylor's attempted tackle, yet because of unfortunate circumstances Eduardo's leg was broken. It was a freak occurence of events and angles. Taylor was late, but not half as late as a number of tackles in today's game. If the clown Blatter get his way, football will become touch football only. Whilst there is considerable emotion involved in what happened to Eduardo, nobody is trying to sweep anything under the carpet. Taylor got sent off, everyone including Eduardo has accepted that his tackle involved no malice and he has served the prescribed sentance. Half-wits calling for restrospective increases such maybe look at horrific assaults which result only in a yellow card, or no penalty at all, and be calling for such instances to be more effectively dealt with by an appropriate disciplinary panel. Personally, I feel if this idiotic bandwagon is allowed to continue then Martin Taylor should take legal action against these authorities and personally against the individuals concerned for slander and defamation for falsely attempted to suggest that he deliberately sought to injure another player, which anyone with an IQ above 71 can see he did not.

Should keep their nose out

FIFA should keep their noses out of a footballing matter?? Don't think I've heard anything more ridiculous this year.

They should allow national associations to increase yellow cards to red ones when nasty challenges are not adequately punished. That would do far more for the game, than pursuing a populist vendetta against what they think is a soft target. Taylor made a bad clumsey tackle, which is not as'over-the-ball' as many seen. At least the ball was present. It is the inability of the associations to retrospectively increase punishments that allow players to think they have a better than evens chance of getting away with it, with the refs not wanting to ruin the spectacle of the game. Wait until the game has finished then ban them.

the only difference with cole and taylor, is that taylor is as strong as a rugby player. And cole is as strong as his wife.

Some more differences: Cashley went in 2-footed while Taylor's 1 foot was enough to do the damage; Cashley was lucky that his lesser physical strength, as you said, meant he didn't break Hutton's leg; Cashley dared show his petulance against the ref after the incident; and more importantly, Cashley only got a ridiculous yellow card. That's what we're talking about.

To say that's "ball level" is a bit too simplistic. I don't do kickabouts but I know you kick the ball in the middle part, or at the bottom of it. And Eduardo was hit in the middle of his shin, which is like the top part of the ball isn't it? That, with your studs up, is "dangerous play." Simple as. And not to mention that, as you said, the ball was long gone, it's that badly mistimed. You're right in saying that these tackles, and some worse, are happening every week. But I can't agree with your sentiment - the fact that Hutton luckily (don't know if he or Cashley was luckier!) escaped that horrible tackle because his leg was in the air doesn't make Cashley's tackle right or deserving only a yellow. There's no point saying who's "pathetic" in resurrecting the debate. If something's serious and important enough, we should keep trying to do better. And protecting players' well-being are extremely important. Because someone's legs and careers are more important than the "risk" of turning the game into "touch football" in case I have to point out. The purpose of Rocky's article wasn't to paint Taylor or any player with any brush. If anything, I only see one campaign with the objective of portraying a nice guy's image, which is fine. But let's not forget intention does not come into punishing "dangerous play". Oh, and there could be a bit of malice in Cashley's tackle, it seemed to me. That's the other difference. But guess what's in common between the 2 incidents? Both culprits said "he was too quick for me." Now that's another issue altogether, because for anyone to put any kind of spin on this kind of horrible stuff is just, as you say, "pathetic".

BOTH Cashley's AND Taylor's tackles should be severely punished. Why intent keeps popping up as relevant is beyond me. The issue is RECKLESSNESS. Intent is TOTALLY irrelevant. Mido did not intend to knock out Gael's head, it doesn't matter. He kicked his leg out very high when he clearly saw Gael coming towards him, he didn't care to modify his action, it was dangerous, reckless play. Thatcher didn't "intend" to knock out Mendes and put him in the hospital, it was RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT. I'm sick and tired of this discussion being reduced to whether or not the player is "nice" or whether or not he "intended" to hurt anyone. That's total bilge. As if you can even measure intent. The simple fact is that Martin Taylor's tackle was reckless and negligent. I don't care how many times you see reckless tackles flying in the league. When a player goes into a tackle he is supposed to do so understanding that he has a "duty of care". It is the deterioration in the English game of this concept -- the notion that it is acceptable to ignore "duty of care -- that disgraces the English league. Taylor is only one among many players who do this routinely. It's only pure luck that there haven't been more broken legs.

Amos and Jaelle and Rocky and many many people here and on other sites have tried to explain our same point of view in like 1000 different ways or permutations of words. I'm tired of repeating too, and running out of vocabulary lol. But this IS serious and important to people's careers and, well, their legs for God's sake, so if we have to keep running like a bunch of broken records, so be it.

After all, if Taylor's ban is increased then his and his clubs lawyers can argue that he has been victimised unless similar individuals are retrospectively treated as well which will cause chaos.

Fair point on the way Blatter handles this BMM, but whether to single someone out is secondary in importance (by far) to the bigger issue of fair play and protecting players' well-being. I agree it'd be ideal if we can catch all the culprits and penalise them in a fairer way. But it sadly takes a horrendous, career-threatening injury like Eduardo's to even get the attention of someone like Blatter you know. Those other incidents you mentioned went unnoticed at the FIFA level for a reason - they didn't hurt someone badly to warrant the press and debate. And secondly, the injury and the intent are irrelevant. Dangerous is dangerous, studs up, over the top is dangerous enough. That's why Cashley should have been punished even though he didn't injure Hutton, same for Kuyt and Eboue. But thirdly, whether an automatic 3-match ban is enough is an entirely different matter. You're right, under the current laws of the game Taylor has indeed served his time due. But when the laws say that an extremely dangerous tackle that could end someone's career and a small push on someone's face are punished with the same ban, we should think about how to make the laws fairer. That's what we're talking about. That's why I'm more for an open debate than any kind of further accusation against Taylor even though I really still maintain that a 3-match ban is too light for such a big mistake, regardless whether it's intentional or not (which can probably never been proven). Yes Amos, if these horrible injuries to players didn't serve as a big enough wake-up call to some players and refs, the authorities have to do some education work there.

Although I think its time there was a change of mind set, its a bit unfortunate that Taylor is being made the scapegoat here. FIFA is taking the easy way out, by asking for this one particular file. There needs to be a rule change based on this one incident. For me, the 2 major changes that need to be made are - 1. Retrospective punishments by the FA should be possible, even if the incident has been seen by the ref. 2. There needs to be a graded penalty system (for number of games banned) for different types of violent conduct.