The New Year always brings with it a bevy of new resolutions: a commitment to get fit, to spend more time with the family, or even, ahem, to blog more often.
Alas, like so many snowflakes, these resolutions tend to melt away when the cold winds of winter give way to the renewing sounds of spring.
If you are a soccer/football player, I’ve found one you can keep up with, and I’m calling it “How to Earn A Caution Without Really Trying”. All you need do is follow these simple steps:
- Have a reputation as a hard-to-manage hothead
- Be on your fourth caution of the season (one away from a one match suspension)
- Commit a foul that, on its’ own merit, might get you booked
- Have a referee, whom knowing that you are on your 4th caution, decides to give you the benefit of the doubt for the late tackle and not caution you
- Finally – and this one’s the cruncher – run your mouth at said referee in the immediate aftermath of said leniency
There you are, one caution, done and dusted. Oh, and don’t forget the bonus one match suspension.
Happy New Year everyone!
In The Opinion Of The Referee 
7 responses to “Case Study: How To Earn A Caution Without Really Trying”
If Mark can give him a yellow for this, then why did Howard Webb not at least caution Wayne Rooney for his massive out burst at Old Trafford against Spurs?
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Great question and one that only Howard Webb could answer. And we don’t know exactly what Ivanovic said to Clattenburg. My *guess* – and it is only a guess – is that Clattenburg was irritated that his leniency was greeted with dissent.
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Because Webb has proven time and time again to be a coward.
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If I’ve given you a gift; don’t start in on me about the foul call… or the foul I missed on the previous possession… or what you think you heard the opponent say to you… Because I WILL take back my gift. If guys like Ivanovic had consistently received the caution for their insolence, from the earliest youth leagues on-through their development; they would be more circumspect with regard to dissent as professionals. If I were a professional manager, I would insist that every player have a clause in their contract which allowed the club to dock them two-week’s pay whenever they are booked for dissent.
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No good deed EVER goes unpunished. It is amazing at most every level what players will do – he HAD to know he was on 4 cautions, what did he hope to gain by complaining?
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Did it occur to you guys that Branislav Ivanovic isn’t exactly the sharpest axe in the shed?
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LOL. Well spotted!
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