Tonight's Football

[Worthy4England]

That two footer on Ruis was utterly cynical.

That was a pure assault that, wasn't it? Dunno about the hand-wringers at the FA doing anything about it - it's about time the Police got involved.

And yes, I'm quite serious. Why shouldn't they?

Agree it deserves punishment absolutely. Think we have to be very careful about allowing the coppers in. Where does that start and stop?

Well, I'd use this as a start. There was absolutely no case for the player attempting to play the ball as it was nowhere near. See also Keane on Haaland and Barrow on Came (though I doubt that there's any film footage of that one - though come to think of it, Barrow on anyone, the curly-haired, talent-free, violent 4ucknugget).

Police got involved when Bowyer and Dyer were windmilling eachother. Everybody said it was the right thing to do, then. The same people probably wouldn't be too impressed if 46 pro rugby players got collared for it though.

Correct. But we don't like to see girls fighting.

[boltonboris]

Did you get my text Worthy?

[Worthy4England]

Did you get my text Worthy?

Yeah mate - been in all day meetings, so just responded.

[Prufrock]

The Aguerro assault was definitely a red carder, but it wasn't worth a criminal investigation. It was a deliberate two footer - no doubt, or at least beyond a reasonable doubt, but it was aimed at the blokes arse - he was never going to break anything, hardly GBH.

See and this is where the difficulty lies. What do the police get involved in, and what don't they? Do they only do "off the ball incidents" so as to remain "outside of the sport" as a whole or do they have to decide whether a mis-timed tackle that broke someone's leg had intent or not?

And what about mis-timed challenges that someone hurdles and is uninjured from but is worse than the one that actually did end someone's career?

It's a bit of a minefield to say the least.

And could a mis-timed tackle be GBH/ABH or would it have to show intent? And how would the police decide between one and the other, given the huge number of incidents every week up and down the football league?

For me what's really needed is proper use of technology and a proper review of decisions. Yesterday it would have taken 10 seconds for a video official to see the replay and tell the ref that Aguero needs to go.

End of the day he'll get a ban now, but that doesn't help Chelsea, nor does it change the outcome of the game or really punish Man City that much, or the player in reality.....

It's not really that much of a minefield, in fact,offences to the person are quite good fun to study as a lot of the case law comes from sport, and also weird sexual fetishes.

For offences to the person (apart from one, very serious, one) you don't need intent, just recklessness but it's not quite as simple as that.

Basically, most crimes require you to do a thing, with a certain state of mind, without any defences. The definition of battery, without reference to any defences, covers pretty much all physical contact with anybody else. You just have to apply force to somebody else and either intend it or just consider it possible. So if you accidentally bump into somebody as you step onto a crowded train, you've almost certainly committed the basic 'offence' of battery. Obviously, that would be ridiculous, and so there is the defence of consent. Basically, the person you bumped into knew there was a risk someone would bump into them, but by going out in public, you consent to the risk that people will commit battery in the everyday manner in which they go about their lives.

In sport, you consent to everything which is in the 'spirit of the game'. So miss-timed tackles would be covered by the defence of consent, off the ball punches wouldn't. From the gif I've seen of the Aguero 'tackle', he knew full well what he was doing, and wouldn't have the defence of consent.

I think that line is drawn in the right place. That Shawcross tackle, however catastrophic and unfortunate, there was never any doubt in the eyes of anyone sane that he was trying to make a tackle. That clearly shouldn't be a matter for the police. Start swinging punches, even if you make no contact, and then it clearly isn't within the spirit of the game (of football, boxing is fine) and should be a matter for the police. Which brings us back to Aguero, and LLS' point. If that happened to you in the street, given the end result seems only to be a sore arse, you'd probably get laughed out of the police station. Perhaps a shame, but they're too busy trying to stop the scrotes bottling each other to death in the city centre. Or Newcastle fans getting carried away by their black and white stripes and Magpie nickname, thinking they're at a Chorley game, and punching a police horse. Bottling it though, coz that Chester fan nutted it!

Fcuk knows what the FA were doing though. What is it, another 'well, the referee was definitely on the pitch a bit at the time so it's out of our hands' job?

[Annoyed Grunt]

Everton putting themselves about against Arsenal..

[Annoyed Grunt]

Spurs just gone 2-1 up against City......

[Annoyed Grunt]

3-1 now.......

[ChrisC]

3-1 now.......

Great comeback from Spurs.

[Worthy4England]

Going to stay in for a couple of weeks. There'll be no living with the Red bastards.

[bwfcdan94]

I am hopeful Villa will win tomorrow more because it will officially relegate QPR and Reading then the fact it will shut the DMBs up for a bit.

[Annoyed Grunt]

Suarez bites Ivanovich.......

[mrkint]

wat

[Annoyed Grunt]

:shock? wat

Bites him on the arm, whilst fighting for the ball.

He's done it before, whilst at Ajax...

[ChrisC]

:shock? wat

Sunk his teeth into Ivanovic's arm. He has previous in Holland. Known as the cannibal.

[malcd1]

Suarez bites Ivanovich.......

Not a surprise with teeth like that.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/gi ... -ivanocic/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And just to prove what a cheating cock he is. Should have been a red card for this deliberate handball.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/gi ... a-penalty/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[seanworth]

Well suarez scores. Now the question is whether he will play again this season.

[Annoyed Grunt]

Well suarez scores. Now the question is whether he will play again this season.

Nope, should be his season over......

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Should be career over. He is a disgrace...

[Gooner Girl]

Damn you City. Could have beaten spuds.

[seanworth]

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to BBC Sport:

"On chances created, we deserved three points.

"I think it would be an injustice to Luis Suarez to talk about 45 minutes, he has been the best player in the league this season. I think he is the third best player in the world behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

"You have two good teams, there is a lot at stake. These games will get spicy."

Spicy? Is he taking the piss now. Maybe Serbian food is concidered spicy by Stevie Me's standards but Suarez originates from South America.