I was thinking about the Bellamy incident involving a spectator. On the one hand, the fan had no business being on the pitch, but on the other hand, Bellamy's actions could not be interpreted as self-defense given the situation (the pitch invader was already being restrained by a policeman). Should he have been cautioned or perhaps even red carded by the referee? Ferdinand's anger is arguably more understandable, but maybe he should also have seen the yellow card.
According to the British sites, the FA will be investigating the incident and I'm sure this will result in some form of punishment for Bellamy. I don't know if Ferdinand will also be investigated. Is the team of referees anywhere in sight on any vids shown? I shut the game after the final whistle yesterday and didn't see the incident in real time. And since a lot of us do games with handshake lines, make sure you always watch for stuff in the line. I had a brawl once in a u12g handshake line.
A few years back, there was an incident where a player tripped a spectator on the field before the police got there. He was shown a card, but I don't remember what color. As for Bellamy, he was booked in the 58', but I don't see a problem with a card here. He had no reason to go over to the fan, let alone put his hands on him. However, Atkinson is a FIFA ref and I'm not, so he probably has a good reason for not carding Bellamy. -ZL PS: http://www.footytube.com/video/manchester-united-manchester-city-sep20-23352 at 22:29 for a great tackle by the police to take down the fan.
The incident happened in a professional match in Greece. The player was sent off for kicking a fan who was running on the field. Here is the link: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5imHN8-M4o&feature=fvw"]YouTube - GREEK SUPERLEAGUE, PAO - ASTERAS TRIPOLIS: PLAYER TACKLES STREAKER AND GETS THE RED CARD![/ame] happy viewing
That call seems insane to me, anyone else give a straight red card for that? Is that even a red during the match on another player?
Thanks for the responses, good that there will be further investigations regarding this matter (though neither side has pressed charges so far). As for the Greek case, seems like a totally different situation to me (the player tried to aid security, a red card seems like the wrong call to me). I think that I posted a thread about the second incident a while ago, but it was locked, as some of the discussions got rather heated.
He shoulda gone Mike Curtis on him. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdP2G7UtS9I"]YouTube - Baltimore colts mike curtis and the fan[/ame]