the real football

Here is an interesting occurrence from a game in Europe not long ago. Costin Lazar, a player from Rapid Bucharest, was tackled in his opponents penalty area. The referee determined that it was an unfair challenged, called the foul, and awarded Rapid a penalty kick. Have a look at the video and judge for yourself.

Fair play is definitely encouraged, at least by word, in the game of soccer (calcio, futbol, futebol, fussball, voetbal, etc…) but did the player here take it too far? Isn’t this, in fact, dissent? At what point is dissenting the referees decision OK?

There are many other questions about this that come to mind, and I am just not sure where I stand. I applaud the display of sportsmanship by Lazar, but wonder what the impact to the game would be if players started doing this with situations in which they deem the referee to be in clear error in their favor, all over the pitch. We already see players lobby and try to fool the referee; would they then try hard to lobby each other to overturn the referee’s decision, rather than having a go at the referee? Would that be any more sporting than dissenting the referee’s decision?

Ach, nothing to really worry about, I believe; rather, just an exercise in thought. The likelihood of players consistently doing this to their opponents advantage is almost nil, especially in a game in which their team needs a goal. That brings up one last question.

Would Lazar have done the same thing if his team had been down a goal in this game, rather than having the game in hand?