Can someone explain why Barnes doesn't get a red card for this?

[patdog]

And this was only one of 4 absolutely terrible calls that went against Chelsea Saturday. I think Morinho is right about the conspiracy.

Link

 

[af102]

Horrible refereeing, that's how. Anytime you follow through studs up on someone's high ankle/calf area, it has to be a straight red. Plays like that can easily break bones.

The worst part was he didn't even get a yellow card.

 

[Philly Dawg]

There is no conspiracy against Chelsea. The refereeing in the EPL has been shockingly bad this year and many teams have felt the brunt - or recevieved the benefit - of it.

 

[patdog]

I was being a little sarcastic about Mourinho being right about the conspiracy. But when that doesn't even draw a penalty, much less a red card and then the FA reviews it and says, nope, no action needed, it starts to get really hard to defend the position that there is no conspiracy.

Edit to add: Some of the "consipracy" they bring on themselves. Like the time earlier this year when Diego Costa got a yellow card for a dive inside the penalty box on what should have been a clear penalty. He dives way too often so when he's legitimately fouled, everyone just naturally assumes it's just another dive.

 

[FQDawg]

The part that bothers me...

is that the FA didn't take any sort of retroactive action on the play. Yes, the refereeing has been awful this year (across the board) but the FA could do a lot to help clean up the game if they would retroactively punish some of the more egregious actions taken by players, including retroactively punishing players that dive.

 

[Philly Dawg]

You are right on Costa, he has that reputation. The same was true for Gareth Bale. Because of his reputation for diving, calls that should have been penalties and free kicks resulted in yellow cards against him. What I never understood was how it didn't seem to keep refs from granting penalties and not giving simulation against Luis Suarez - possibly the worst diver of all time.

Another thing to consider is how the game has gone. If there has been a lot of complaining, and the game has gotten chippy, it almost makes the refs not want to call fouls, but under such circumstances, it perversely makes them more likely to give red cards for the confrontations afterwards.

 

[Philly Dawg]

To preface, this is a stupid rule, but if I'm not mistaken, the FA won't take retroactive action on something that happened in front of the referee where the referee decided not to give the call, but only when its something that occurred away from the referree. Again, this makes little sense to me, but may be what happened here.

 

[FQDawg]

You're right...

it's exactly what happened there. And I'm with you - I hate that rule. Mathieu Debuchy got hurt in a game against Newcastle (I think) a few weeks ago where an attacking player pushed him out of bounds, he landed awkwardly and separated his shoulder. It wasn't an accident - the Newcastle player clearly pushes him needlessly - but the FA took no action because of the whole "the ref saw it and did nothing" logic.

I can almost understand the ref not giving a card in the Chelsea/Burnley situation. The Burnley player kicked the ball, Matic came in late and the Burnley player's foot came down on Matic's leg. I'm almost willing to give the ref the benefit of the doubt that it happened quickly, he was watching where the ball went and he didn't quite realize what has happening. But after review, it's clearly malicious and the FA should have punished to the Burnley player.

 

[Alexi_Lalas]

Yeah, I think that is why the Ref didn't call a foul or give a card initially. The first contact by Barnes was just the follow through on his kick. He had possession of the ball and Matic came in and got caught on the follow through when he deflected Barnes' pass. Whether Barne's was trying to or not there was no way to avoid contact in that situation. The Ref must have then followed the ball and not seen the follow through with his other leg. I don't think the first contact is dirty at all. What is dirty is what looks like to me an apparent leg sweep with his left leg after first contact.