Dubai: The jury is out on whether Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo should have received the red card for ‘elbowing’ Iran defender Morteza Pouraliganji in a dramatic Group B match of Russia 2018 last night.
The heat is very much on Paraguayan referee Enrique Caceres, who took an inordinately long time to review the incident on the pitchside monitor before settling for a yellow card to Ronaldo. Protugal qualified as the second team from Group B for the round of 16 after a pulsating 1-1 draw against Iran while Spain emerged as the group toppers.
A look at the Youtube clipping, where the ‘hits’ are mounting since the morning, may answer to the query as to why Caceres took such a long time. With Pouraliganji marking him in anticipation of the long ball from inside Portugal territory on the left, Ronaldo seems to be using his elbow to shrug off the defender for a split second before moving around him – following which Pouraliganji virtually gives the star a ‘taste of his own medicine’ by falling on the ground and for dramatic effect.
Run it twice or thrice over, and it looks CR7 was trying more to shrug off his marker more and get around him in a split second – which must have had the VAR (video assisted referee) team in two minds in going for the marching orders. If video evidence is not conclusive – and to me it wasn’t – then a red card is too harsh a punishment.
Iran’s coach Carlos Queiroz, Ronaldo’s one-time mentor, was categoric though that he should have been sent off for an elbow. “The reality is you stopped the game for VAR, there is an elbow. An elbow is a red card in the rules. In the rules it doesn't say if it is (Lionel) Messi or Ronaldo...”
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As Fifa tried to push the boundaries with the VAR this time, it seems to be opening up a Pandoras’ Box. Football, unlike cricket where mostly the dismissals are referred to technology, has many layers about it – a unfair charge in a certain area of the ground may be penalized with only a booking, but the same offence can be a certain penalty as well as a red card if the referee deems fit.
It’s a challenge that the referees will now have to cope with as the tournament moves towards the business-end.
