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Monday, February 25, 2008

The Premier League must act - ban thugs

Arsenal's Croatian / Brazilian striker Eduardo suffered a potentially career threatening injury on Saturday and it's time this sort of thuggery is sorted out.

Birmingham City's Martin Taylor clattered into Eduardo divingi in studs up and missing the ball by over a foot, and fractured his left fibula and an open dislocation of his ankle joint leaving Eduardo with a foot pointing the wrong way.



The apologists for the "get stuck in brigade" are already saying that it wasn't malicious, and that Taylor "is a good lad" but have no doubt at all that this tackle was a deliberate attempt to stop Eduardo and prevent a chance at goal.

Taylor probably did not mean to break a leg, or end a career, but he also did not mean to pull out of the tackle once the ball had gone.

This tackle wasn't mistimed, it was not accidental, it was a calculated tackle delivered with full force and designed to give the Arsenal player "something to think about" early on in the game, and it something that is still prevalent in the English game.

As it stands Taylor will be banned for three games for his red card, while Eduardo will be out of football for at least 6 months ... if he plays at professional level again.

I've gone into the forum saying that my solution would be that players that are sent off for violent fouls should be suspended for a periord of time that matches the duration that the injured player is out plus three months.

Perhaps that's too harsh, especially bearing in mind that Eduardo may not play again, but I certainly think that there needs to be a review panel that sits after the game to make a decision on an extended ban period for violent fouls.

Whether, it's 5, 10 or even 20 games is something that can be determined rationally in the week following with the benefit of video evidence and witness depositions.

As it stands at the moment a player that gets sent off gets a 3-match ban, be it for talking out of turn to a referee, slapping (Jeremie Aliadiere yesterday), or for violent foul play.

That's unacceptable.

(NEWS UPDATE : Arsenal are predicting that Eduardo da Silva will make a full recovery in about nine months)