The Philosophy of Sport

[Bookworm]

As the title suggests, this thread is to intended to harbour intellectual discussion on the nature and ethics of sport.

To keep a degree of structure to the thread, we will address one topic at a time. The first topic I would like to open up for discussion is the ethics surrounding "the professional foul".
I will use soccer as an example. For those of you who don't know, a professional foul is when a player commits a foul to prevent the opposing team from obtaining some form of advantage. In soccer, the most serious forms are preventing either a definite goal (usually hadballing a shot bound to go in) or a clear goal-scoring opportunity (fouling a player one on one with the keeper). Currently, both of those offenses are punished with a straigh red card (sending off) and a minimum of a a one match ban.

A couple of questions here
1. Should players commit such fouls, for the sake of their team?
2. If the foul is not malicious, should the player be issued a red card for a professional foul? If not, what action should be taken?
3. If the player unintentionally commits the professional foul (the ball accidently hits their arm, stopping a definite goal) should a red card still be issued?

 

[vVv Rapture]

Where did you get your information on soccer penalties? Have you ever even watched a soccer game?

A handball outside of the box is an direct free kick. If it is inside, it's a penalty kick.

Fouling a player on a 1v1 with the intention of really taking the player out ends up being a penalty kick in most cases, too, especially in the box.

Neither of these are "straight red cards" or result in a match ban.

 

[Dre89]

He didn't say fouls outside the box are penalties....

A player can receive a straight red card for handballing a shot on the goal-line, illegally preventing it from going in. At least two players I know of got sent off at the World Cup for doing this.

A defender can also receive a straight red if he fouls a player that is bound to score, either he has an open goal, or he is one-on-one with the keeper. In fact, nowadays even keepers often get sent off if they trip a striker who gets past them and is bound to score.

If any of the offences above are commtited in the box, yes it's a penalty, but the offender also receives a red card. This is one of the issues in contention, whether it's fair on the offending team to concede both a penalty and a red card.

 

[#HBC | Dark Horse]

Guys, don't derail this topic in record time.

@OP

Cheating is wrong, no matter what. If you have to cheat to win a soccer game, it's your fault your team's so bad.

 

[vVv Rapture]

He didn't say fouls outside the box are penalties....

A player can receive a straight red card for handballing a shot on the goal-line, illegally preventing it from going in. At least two players I know of got sent off at the World Cup for doing this.

A defender can also receive a straight red if he fouls a player that is bound to score, either he has an open goal, or he is one-on-one with the keeper. In fact, nowadays even keepers often get sent off if they trip a striker who gets past them and is bound to score.

If any of the offences above are commtited in the box, yes it's a penalty, but the offender also receives a red card. This is one of the issues in contention, whether it's fair on the offending team to concede both a penalty and a red card.

Well he didn't say they weren't either. Didn't really clarify, actually.

And I wouldn't use the World Cup as a good source of these kinds of situations considering the overall reffing quality in the first place.

I'll research and think about this a bit more and maybe come back to continue this debate in general.