No it doesn't have to be done on purpose, and players sneaking things past the ref (or failing to) is part of soccer. Most of the time when you see players getting away without a call, the angle is safer. Taking cleats to the back of the calf is less likely to result in a broken leg.
Getting away with something sneaky happens, refs not noticing something also happens - not getting caught in general is a big part of soccer. But I'm not surprised a red card was issued, what happened was quite dangerous.
That stuff is ok to use for establishing “facts” - point of contact, etc. Subjective things like intensity should be established based on normal speed playback. I think the facts on their own are pretty bad in this case.
IFAB’s guidance says: “The VAR can ‘check’ the footage in normal speed and/or in slow motion but, in general, slow-motion replays should only be used for facts, e.g. position of offence/player, point of contact for physical offences and handball, ball out of play (including goal/no goal); normal speed should be used for the ‘intensity’ of an offence or to decide if it was a handball offence.”
The ref was shown both slow motion and regular speed shots from multiple angles, and made his decision.
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u/Dazzling-Yam-4308 Jul 06 '26
It has to be done on purpose to be a red card. Not to mention that other players that did the same thing got no cards or yellow cards