da marjack bet： Now that the period of mourning has ceased, as the venerable Lionel Messi returns to first team action for Barcelona, perhaps it is time to release Tomas Ujfalusi from the shackles placed on him by certain areas of the footballing community. Now, before I am judged on this, I want to say that I believe Lionel Messi to be the best footballer in the world, and not only this, but I believe he has been for quite some time and will be for many years to come. However, the sanctimonious vilification of Ujfalusi is entirely unwarranted.
da apostaganha： Let’s first examine the tackle; maladroit, clumsy and slightly reckless are ways I would describe the challenge. I would not describe it as malicious. It is malicious in the sense that he meant to foul Messi, the Argentinean had ghosted past him and, sensing the danger for his team, Ujfalusi flung out a despairing leg to halt Messi’s advance down the pitch; but in terms of intent to injure the player, there is surely not a case to answer. First, this is Messi at full flight; imagine the skill it would take to do what Ujfalusi managed on purpose, the timing would have to be impeccable to deliberately role his ankle over from the position the Czech centre-back was in. Second, this is Tomas Ujfalusi, solid, yes, imposing, yes, dexterous and fleet of foot? Perhaps not. Third, this tackle happened in injury time; it was a tired and ill-advised challenge, not one with any malevolent purpose, at least in terms of injuring the player. A challenge to compare this with would perhaps be Andy Wilkinson’s tackle on Moussa Dembele in the Carling Cup. Again, this challenge came deep into injury time, and left the player on the receiving end prone and injured, but in comparison Ujfalusi did not put Messi into the advertising hoardings around the Vicente Calderon, with an overly forceful challenge; instead his was merely miss-timed.
The Ujfalusi witch-hunt began in earnest in the immediate aftermath of the incident, with Sky Sports’ La Liga panel calling for players like Messi to be ‘protected’ with challenges such as Ujfalusi’s ‘outlawed’ from the game. This was then followed up in the Spanish press, but in a country obsessed with ‘contacto!’ it is perhaps more surprising Ujfalusi wasn’t appearing in a Communidad de Madrid courtroom the next day. But wait a minute, transpose any other player in the world with Messi in that situation, and does the incident produce the same outcome? It is a red card? Does it lead to a Czech centre-back focused defamation? The answer to all of those questions is probably not. What this challenge exposed, more than anything, is a hierarchy within football, the more famous you are, the more protected you are. Mix that fame with being a fairly decent bloke and you are ‘untouchable’, a rank Lionel Messi has risen to over the past few years; not only is he the best player in the world, he is also not bad in the human stakes either, especially when compared to his main footballing competition; tantrum-king Cristiano Ronaldo. But does this mean he deserves a higher level of protection than any other player? Again, the answer is probably not. As much as I enjoy watching Messi play, accidents happen in contact sports, and this is exactly what I believe the Ujfalusi tackle to be, an unfortunate accident. But as we have seen with the Ryan Shawcross/Aaron Ramsey incident in last season’s Premier League, sometimes the distress of a player overrides the impartiality of the referee’s decision. Now I am not saying I wouldn’t have sent Shawcross off, but if you freeze time at the moment of the tackle, it is a booking at worst, it is only the horrific aftermath which left the referee with no choice. It is a similar situation to that of Messi, the player’s distress (and his stature) lead directly to the red card.
The principal question for me, is would Tomas Ujfalusi have been sent off had it been a Levante player in question? Probably not. Which leads me to ask, should Ujfalusi have been treated the way he has been? You guessed it, probably not.
Written By James Atkinson