FA Should Cut Foy Rap

It’s possible to suggest that Sunday’s Manchester derby had everything you could wish for from a football game – goals, controversial talking points, and the potential for a City shock, which had it been achieved would, at 3-0 down and with 10 men, have eclipsed that John Macken winner in February 2004 at White Hart Lane.

It was not to be. However, the quality of the game, which United won 3-2, means that the main controversy and talking point - Vincent Kompany’s red card - seems to have partially slipped the radar. Maybe not to the blue half of Manchester though, who could wishfully remonstrate all day that, with a full complement of players, they would have made an even better fist of it.

Chris Foy, a referee berated to the hilt by Spurs boss Harry Redknapp in recent weeks, for a dreadful refereeing performance in a league game at Stoke, was the man entrusted with making split-second decisions in one of the fiercest games in the land. He was bold, he was decisive, he was unlucky.

The tackle made in the 12^th minute by Belgian centre half Kompany (top) would have been acceptable five years ago. However, the ‘scissor tackle’ is a dangerous manoeuvre if wrongly executed and there are calls for it to be totally eradicated.

Some say that “it threatened to ruin the spectacle of the game.” It is ironic, for the fact that a) it didn’t, and b) if the tackle had broken Nani’s leg, one of the most exciting players in the Premier League, who can light up any game, would have been missing from the league for 3 months!

On reflection, a red was harsh; a yellow would not have sufficed. Perhaps the authorities need to help their referees and bestow the power of a ‘sin bin’ or ‘report’ system upon them.

Foy, who never entirely had a grip of the game and wasn’t brave enough to give two further penalties, did however act in the best interests of the future of the game. Hopefully it will dissuade the oafish centre halves out there (I hasten to add the omission of Kompany here) from clumsy tackles.

City will appeal the red card, as to not lose their best defender for a three game suspension, however the outcome should be a cut and dried decision already for the FA – back the man in black.