5 terrible tackles that went unpunished

Cricket is dubbed as the gentlemen’s game due to the fact that it is a non-contact sport. Football, however, is a contact-sport and – despite being labelled as the beautiful game by Pele – we often see some of the most vulgar things on the pitch.

One of them are the brutal tackles. Defending is an art and perfectly-timed tackling is art in motion. However, when a tackle is made with ill-intent or with poor timing, it becomes one of the grossest things to witness.

Obviously, the referee is bound to punish the offender for such atrocity. Sometimes, however, the offender goes unpunished – and here are 5 such cases…

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#5 Callum Mcmanaman on Massadio Haidara

There is a saying in Hindi, “zor ka jhatka dheere ze lage,” which roughly translates to, “[sometimes] a strong force hits rather softly.” If any tackle could be used to exemplify the preceding quote, it would be this tackle by Callum McManaman on Massadio Haidara.

At first glance, it would seem as though Haidara’s career was over after facing such a brutal studs up tackle on the knee, opposite to the motion of inertia nonetheless. It immediately caused a fracas between the two participating teams – Wigan and Newcastle – which was brought under control with great difficulty.

Luckily for Haidara, the injury wasn’t as bad as was thought out to be as he was out for only a month. Also, what’s even more astonishing is the fact that McManaman escaped unpunished as the referee missed the incident.

Studs up and on the knee, that’s a red in my book – or any book for that matter.

#4 Alan Shearer on Neil Lennon

One of the first things that you will hear people saying about Alan Shearer is that he was one of the most complete forwards of his generation and that they don’t make it like him anymore, as strikers these days are more specialised.

However, even the brightest one have dark spots – and none more for Shearer than this vicious stamp on then Leicester City midfielder, Neil Lennon, in 1998 which left the midfielder with a cut on his face. Had this been done anywhere apart from the pitch, Shearer might as well have been sentenced to prison for it.

However, since the referee failed to spot it, Shearer escaped without even a booking. What’s even more strange that the FA found him not guilty of doing it on purpose. Perhaps the then England captain didn’t really mean to do harm, but it was a cynical offence nonetheless.

#3 Harald Schumacher on Patrick Battiston

So if a player tackles another player so badly that it leaves him on the ground without any consciousness, while also losing three teeth in the process, what should a referee do? Show him a red card and, even better, personally escort him out of the pitch by holding his back-neck, right?

Well, not this referee who officiated a World Cup semi-final game between West Germany and France in 1982. As Patrick Battiston, the French defender, rushed towards the German goalkeeper in an attempt to lob the ball over him and into the goal, Schumacher mistimed... sorry, purposely timed his jump in the worst possible way.

The goalkeeper’s flying body, that turned midway to make his hips face forward, hit the face of the Frenchman, making him drop on the floor instantly and becoming unconscious in the process. If not punishing Schumacher wasn’t enough as it was already, the referee actually gave Germany a goal-kick instead.

In the end, Germany won the match 5-4 on penalties.

Talk about adding salt to wound.

#2 Paul Gascoigne on Gary Charles

This is basically a ‘karma comes back to f**k you up’ sort of thing, but only this time, karma came to bite back instantly. Paul Gascoigne, fondly known as Gazza and one of the most talented players of his generation, was already on a booking before this tackle.

Now, Gazza was very gifted. Indeed, such was his talent that he was frequently regarded as the most naturally gifted English player of his generation. However, this tackle might have changed his career for the worse.

As Gary Charles of Nottingham Forest ran towards a loose ball, Gazza wanted to kick it away, but badly mistimed his tackle. In a classic knee-to-knee clash, Gazza hurt himself more than Gary Charles as the latter hobbled off while the former was writhing in pain after rupturing his knee ligaments.

Obviously, Gazza went unpunished – which was strange, to say the least.

#1 Andoni Goikoetxea on Diego Maradona

Most of you might have heard of the term, “Butcher of Bilbao.” It was the nickname given to Andoni Goikoetxea after this tackle against Diego Maradona. The former Athletic defender had a reputation of being a brutal defender who never hesitated to put in vile tackles.

And one of them was against the Argentine legend, Diego Maradona. Now, of course, we all know how good Maradona was. Even if you never saw him play, you definitely can’t have escaped the articles that sing laurels on him.

He was so that defenders doubled, nah, tripled… quadrupled on him in order to contain his surge. Against Athletic in 1983, the task of marking the legendary Argentine was assigned to Goikoetxea – who took no prisoners.

As you can see in the video, the severity of the tackle was so much that Maradona damaged his ankle and instantly a developed a hate towards Goikoetxea. Quite strangely, though, the referee didn’t show Goikoetxea even a yellow for this unforgivable offence.

Fun fact: a year later, in the final of the Copa del Rey, the animosity between the clubs due to this incident turned into a brutal post-game fight that saw Diego Maradona kneeing the senses out of Athletic player, Miguel Sola, before being shot down himself by – guess who? – the Butcher of Bilbao with a flying kick.