Sporting Professionalism

       There have been a couple of moments recently in sport when sporting professionalism has been thrown out of the window.  On Sunday as most of you know Nigel de Jong made a tackle on Ben Afra and Ben Afra ended up with a broken tibia and fibula.  In the match the referee Martin Atkinsson saw the offence and did not punish it.  I have watched it a few times to get a good opinion on it and my opinion is that it was strong late tackle, it wasn't reckless, it was premeditated and Ben Arfa was very unlucky to get his leg caught between the legs of Nigel de Jong.  The thing that has actually annoyed me is the fact that Newcastle have wrote to the FA to ask for ". . the appropriate action to be taken against De Jong for the tackle which, in the club's, opinion was unnecessary and used excessive force."  This is a very unprofessional thing for Newcastle to do.

       I don't agree with their view of the tackle, it was a strong and late but it was only due to the fact that Ben Arfa's studs got caught in the grass that Nigel de Jong's trailing broke Ben Arfa's leg when it mad contact.  Nigel de Jong didn't go in two footed, he didn't jump into the tackle and there no malicious in the challenge.  Nigel de Jong in the past has made a couple of bad challenges but so have most professional footballers, the problem for de Jong is that he made a possibly his worst tackle on the biggest stage.

       In the World Cup final, one of the most watched events in the world, Nigel made an attempt for the ball in the air and ended up putting his studs into Alonso's chest it was a bad challenge and picked up a yellow card.  Nigel de Jong isn't the first person to be victimised because of one or two mistakes he has made.  I wrote just over a week ago about referee Stuart Attwell who has had a couple of mistakes but any mistake he makes now is highlight tenfold compared to any other referee.

       People need to be impartial about who the player is when they look at the tackle, a lot of people have said "Oh, it was de Jong, he does that all the time he must of ment it." that is the wrong way of looking at it.  The FA will consider Newcastle's request for action to be taken against Nigel de Jong but thankfully they may be powerless to implement any punishment due to the fact that the referee saw the incident and didn't punish de Jong.

       But for me Netherlands coach Bert Van Marwijk is the true villain here he has dropped Nigel de Jong from the sqaud he had already picked.  Van Marwijk revealed his decision to drop De Jong on the Dutch FA website, saying: "I just informed the squad and told him I saw no other possibility.  In the near future I will discuss this matter with Nigel but right now we have to focus on the upcoming two matches."

       Dutch legend Johan Cruyff urged the midfielder to clean up his game, saying: "He's crossed the line two or three times now.  He needs to understand he is an example to all the young players and I think it is a very good decision."   I utterly disagree with this course of action, I feel Van Marwijk should be standing by his player.  He may be trying to send out a message to the young players but I think he is sending the message that if you get into any form of bad press I am going to drop you, I won't stand by my players.