Goal Keeper gets Red Card defending himself

[brokencrossbar1]

It wouldn't even get to court, the police would laugh them out of the custody suite. 

[thewobbler]

David, if you're wishing punishment on a man for instinctively protecting himself, can I ask what punishment you'd dole out to the invader?

Trlieac, I'll repeat again that it takes two people to agree to Queensberry Rules before they can be introduced. By launching a flying kick at the keeper, the invader made it very clear that he wasn't in the mood for taking off his coat and settling things like gentlemen.

Next thing you'll be telling me that the Gardai who kicked seven shades of shit out of English fans at Lansdowne in 1995, were out of order.

[mylestheslasher]

If someone makes an attack on you then in my opinion you can use as much force as you like to stop him and prevent him coming back at you. I'd answer questions on the quantity of the force at a later date. FFS this guy could have had a knife or anything. What did ye want the keeper to do, make a citizens arrest? I wonder what planet some people are on sometimes. The dirty sc**bag came on the field to attack and injure a footballer and the footballer defended himself. Its time the law protected the victims and not the perpetrators of crime. In my opinion he should have gave him a few more slaps. The ref's red card is down to the laws of the game and I am not sure what they are in relation to defending yourself against an invading fan.

[David McKeown]

It wouldn't even get to court, the police would laugh them out of the custody suite.

I disagree the law is clear that what the keeper did was not self defence.

[muppet]

Anyone who doesn't have sympathy for the keeper has obviously been fortunate enough to never found themselves the victim of an attack of any description. If the law thinks he should have got some good advice and waited for the stewards to save him, then the law has a very poor understanding of human nature. The idiot ran 30-40 metres before launching an assault that the victim only saw and avoided at the last second. He then lashed out twice in the next 5 seconds before he even had time to figure out what was happening. If you watch afterwards he even braced himself for what he thought was another attacker but was actually an official coming to his aid. It would have been minutes before he even understood what had happened.

[David McKeown]

I do have sympathy for the keeper but to me it appears he seeks to extract retribution for being attacked. A lot of what has been said here should certainly go as mitigation to what he did but it's not a defence.

[theskull1]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but what you believe is that it's okay to stand toe to toe with an assailant, but not okay to maximise an unusual advantage provided by an assailant?

It takes 2 consenting people to play by the queensberry rules Trileac.

I'm saying I wouldn't swing a boot at a person lying on the ground. I assume alot of people would be the same. If you can't read that you must be a bit soft in the head yourself.

If a sc**bag tried to dirty joe me from behind and ended up on the ground like yer man, I'd be disappointed in myself if he didn't feel the full force of my dealer boots to serve as a memory to him of the event. I might pay a price for that down the line but my conscience would be clear.

[Groucho]

No what the keeper should have done was walk away from the situation as the large number of stewards and police who were already making there way onto the pitch did their job. I acknowledge at least one steward cocked up in letting the fan get onto the pitch in the first place but that in no way gave the keeper the right to kick him as he lay on the ground. At that stage the keeper was in no way defending himself he was simply seeking retribution for what the fan had done on him.  He assaulted the fan at that point and I really do hope he faces charges. I have no doubt that if it had happened here he would be.

BC whilst it was at worst a 47 the courts have been clear recently a kick to a man on the ground should carry a suspended custodial sentence.

Proof if ever it were needed.....The Law is an ASS

[Bord na Mona man]

I don't blame the keeper here. The guy wasn't running out to get his autograph.
Someone who is crazy enough to run onto field is bound to shock you. Your self preservation instincts take precedence over the wish to engage in an honourable and jolly old fair contest.

Perhaps he should have sat on the supporter and waited for a member of the constabulary to arrive:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=08BqaSuEE_w

[nrico2006]

I do have sympathy for the keeper but to me it appears he seeks to extract retribution for being attacked. A lot of what has been said here should certainly go as mitigation to what he did but it's not a defence.

A sc**bag who launches an unprovoked physical assault on a man deserves anything they get.  The keeper should have sunk the boot into him more than he did.

[Main Street]

The goalie defended himself deftly with the first strike. After that, he behaved with ignominy.
He totally lost his head under those circumstances, the ref was quite correct to send him off.
However he has mitigating circumstances for his ignominious actions and these were bizarre circumstances.
AZ were attacked first and we all know how sensitive soccer players are to being touched, the goalie could not be expected to regain his composure and play a further part in the game
I think in those circumstances the ref can just abandon the game and the Association works out who gets the result, usually to the favour of the team who were attacked. It will be interesting to see if the fact that they walked off in protest first, has any bearing on the normal procedure.

In general, goalies are a unpredictable bunch, it's a brave man or a fool who would provoke one without good reason.
Remember that Dida character for Milan at Celtic pk. It ended up that he received a ban for simulating the effect of getting hit by a sledgehammer, when in fact the harmless pitch invader had just consoled him with a gentle pat on the neck, as he strolled by.

[fitzroyalty]

There are few situations where it is justified to kick a man on the ground but this is probably one of them. I'd say the goalie's only regret is he didn't kick him harder. Fair play to him.

[Eamonnca1]

I'm with the keeper on this one. If you watch it in slow motion you'd think it was premeditated but watch it at full speed and you see it happened in the blink of an eye. The keeper was acting in self defence, and kicking the asshole on the ground was also self defence. If I was in his position and suddenly somebody was crazy/drunk/high enough to run out onto the field and attack me out of nowhere then how the hell am I supposed to know that he isn't armed or something?  I'd want him to go down and stay down for my own safety.  That was the survival instinct that kicked in here.

[mylestheslasher]

There wasn't any problem when schmeicel did this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLtzFDU1oYI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[pintsofguinness]

Trileac, the point is he didn't.

I'm utterly shocked and even a little bit worried that some of the more pious sorts on here, can somehow expect a person to behave in a logical and passive way in the immediate seconds after being blindside assaulted.

Seriously, don't compare this to a bad foul or a pub brawl. Compare this to you going about your day's work tomorrow when some eejit swings for you out of nowhere. If you genuinely believe that you
r reaction would be anything else other than self defence, then you're wired up wrong.

If someone swung for me I'd swing back. If someone jumps at me misses and lands sprawled on the ground my reaction wouldn't be to swing a boot at him. That's me. Can't speak for everyone but I'd imagine the majority of people would be the same.

That's alright then, you let him up to have another go at you.
Hopefully he won't be more successful, hopefully he won't have a knife or another weapon.

Jesus wept.