I think this image shows that pretty well. I would have no problem with Alderweireld being sent off for this.
It is really strange that Cakir failed to deal with this, when we remember he sent Nani off in the Champions' League match a few seasons ago for something very similar. PH
Is it really? Look at his assignments for one full year after that decision. Also watch, how much more lenient he's gotten since that decision. He didn't get another knockout game in the Champions League for almost one whole season after that as a result. That was his last match in the Champions League knockout round until the 2014-2015 season. We can all say that Nani play was a red card and Cakir got it right, but according to his assignments following that play and the way subsequent similar challenges have been dealt with by him and other referees, it is pretty clear that UEFA did not support that decision and did not want that play to be a red card. Whether it is explicit instruction by UEFA saying that it should not be a red card, or the referees reading the writing on the wall when it comes to assignments it's pretty obvious that UEFA didn't want that to be a red card. From watching the Champions League matches and Europa League matches the past couple of seasons, it seems that bar for a straight red for SFP has been raised to a really high level. Frankly, I would be surprised if we see one this entire tournament. I agree that the play in the Ireland match should have been a PK and yellow and by the book, probably, a red.
Not sure that that one decision was the reason Cakir did not get knock-out round games the following season. At the time many people had said that that decision would keep him out of the WC but it did not. There could have been many reasons, e.g. Manchester United were in the knock-out stage that year, and perhaps they wanted to avoid him on their matches again, Galatasaray were also in the knock-out stage, and he clearly could not work their matches either. Neither teams were in the knock-out stages in the 2014-15 season, Man Utd were not in it at all, so there were no reasons to keep him out. Decisions on appointments are very intricate, and don't just depend on one decision in one match. PH
Unless he was hurt, I'm pretty sure it was. If you don't count the Final there are a total of 28 matches in the UCL knockout stages every season. Man United played in only four of those 28 matches and Galatasary played in two of those 28 matches. That's still another 22 matches that Cakir would have been elgible to do. It's not like they wouldn't give him a game because he was "scratched" by one team and ineligible to do another. English referees and Spanish referees get games in the knockout stages all the time and they sometimes deal with 4 teams that are in the knockout stages. It's highly unlikely that they would just shelve a guy who the past couple of seasons before did a UCL semifinal and a European Championship semi-final. He did 3 group stage matches in that 2013-2014 season and unless he did really poorly on those and I don't recall he did, it is absolutely bizarre that he was shelved for the knockout stages. Again, I don't know the exact reason, but I'm sure that game had a lot to do with it.