Rodrigo Bentancur, a player for Tottenham Hotspur, was found to have barely avoided what refers to match officials as “serious foul play” after colliding violently with Reece James’s ankle during a tense Premier League match on Saturday night.
Bentancur and the other Tottenham midfielders found it extremely difficult to keep up with Chelsea’s unrelenting pace in the first half, which they dominated throughout the game. The match had been lopsided well into stoppage time, with the visiting team holding a slim one-goal lead thanks to a goal from João Pedro, when this renownedly intense rivalry finally sparked its first real incident.
James had first place in the race to get to a loose ball, but his prize was an agonizing one as Bentancur’s studs crashed into his ankle. Jarred Gillett, the match official who was overseeing this infamously tense match for the first time, prudently gave himself a moment to think things through. However, following a lengthy discussion with the Stockley Park Video Assistant Referee, Gillett finally produced a yellow card instead of the more serious red. Trevoh Chalobah, a Chelsea teammate, was also given a yellow card for his passionate complaints towards the referee, adding to James’s obvious annoyance and outrage at the decision.
“The referee’s initial decision to caution Bentancur with a yellow card underwent thorough examination and ultimately received full confirmation from the VAR—with the contact being assessed as a reckless challenge rather than meeting the threshold for serious foul play,” the Premier League’s official match center said as the players withdrew to their dressing rooms for the halftime interval that promptly arrived.
The small but important distinctions between what qualifies as “reckless” challenges and what qualifies as “serious foul play” are detailed in Law 12 of the FA Handbook.
“When a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent” is how one defines a reckless challenge.
In comparison, “a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality” is the definition of serious foul play.
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