Radoslav Kovac is the midfielder for Spartak Moscow, a club you may know from countless impressive internet soccer hooligan riot videos. ("Remember: If the fans aren't ganging up twenty to one on a defenseless man, it's not real Spartak hooliganism!") He also has very little tolerance for people invading the field of play, as some poor shirtless fan did in a recent match.
Kovac responded just as a midfielder would: by delicately slide-tackling the man. The soccer referee responded just as half of all soccer referees do: reacting to the slightest physical contact with a hasty, ill-considered yellow card given for no reason at all. The unique thing, of course, is that Kovac got the card despite tripping someone who wasn't even in the game.
There's much debate in international policy circles about whether Russia really is or isn't a democracy. Our two cents? If you can't slide tackle a fan running onto the field, your country is not truly free. One positive thing to mention is that the referee at least appeared to be sober, a vast improvement over
some Russian Metropolitan Area referees we know and love.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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Sooo let me get this strait. A fan runs onto the field doesn’t attack a player but a player decides to slide tackle the fan for the hell of it. And you see this and blame the referee for carding him. Referees are only policemen, they are given edicts and instructions on what to do when this happens. One of these is a player can’t hit a fan, regardless, it would be considered a red card for him to do so. The referee decided that that was too harsh and just gave him a yellow card for Unsportsmanlike conduct/behavior what have you. So you see this referee trying to enforce the rules that is his job to enforce and you say that he had no reason for doing so, that he’s just being a Powerful Bastard. I think you didn’t mean to pass judgment that quickly.
by liquidyogi on Jul 21, 2008 5:23 PM EDT reply actions
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