April 2025

You can’t write anything about this game without discussing the hugely controversial decision in the first few minutes of the game. Song Ui-Young goes in to close down Kodai Tanaka at the touchline and puts in a late tackle that grazes the knee of the BG Pathum player. Kodai goes down, and bounces up almost immediately, and the foul is given. Jansen Foo brandishes the yellow card. They give each other a pat, and then go back to take up their respective positions for a freekick. It is important to note that at this point, no one on Earth, Jansen Foo included, felt that it was worthy of a red card. While Jansen Foo took most of the heat, it was actually Andrea Verolino who made the bizarre call to send him to the screen. We don’t know what was said, but the fact that this was even considered a red card-worthy incident is baffling — something only a non-footballing mind would entertain. I will elaborate on why I feel so in this piece, so let’s dive right in. Singapore’s Very Own Myles Lewis-Skelley Incident Fans of Arsenal or the English Premier League will likely remember this one. Earlier this season, Arsenal made the trip to Wolves, and Michael Oliver gave a red card to Arsenal player Myles Lewis-Skelly (MLS). It was a similarly baffling incident, where everyone in the world except the referee felt it was a red card. Michael Oliver gave the red card for serious foul play, which is presumably what Jansen and the VAR team thought of Song’s tackle as well. The similarity lies in that both tackles contacted areas of the leg which are usually considered bad tackles. In MLS’s case, it was above the ankle, while for Song’s case, it was on the knee. Also in both cases, the contact was minimal and definitely unintentional. It was part of a natural motion to make an admittedly illegal challenge. For MLS, he went in to trip the advancing Wolves player, so the intended action was a tripping action by just sticking out the foot to let the player fall. In Song’s case, he’s gone in to try to intercept the pass but was late. His momentum takes his whole body into Kodai, but the majority of the contact is an excessive body impact on the upper body of Kodai, not the incidental studs near the knee. You have to really slow the replay down to even see any contact with the knee. In the aftermath of the MLS incident against Wolves, there was widespread condemnation of the horrendous decision from pundits and experts all over the world. In the end, Howard Webb, the referees’ chief, was forced to come out and admit that it was an error, and Michael Oliver should have given a yellow card instead. What is important to note is the reason for it. In Webb’s own words – “The referee sees a raised foot make high contact and the opponent went down … But we know that for serious foul play, we need excessive force or brutality and what we see here is that high contact [just] glancing and coming off the leg quite quickly … So for that reason, everybody pretty much in the game has formed the same conclusion that this is falling short of serious foul play – because of that glancing contact … because the studs don’t really go right into the leg, they glance in…” Man – that word for word describes what Song did. And the worst part about this is, you don’t even need a referees’ chief to tell you this. That’s why there was so much anger against Michael Oliver, and so much anger against Jansen Foo at the weekend. Anyone who’s played football knows that minimal contact outside the foot doesn’t automatically warrant a red. If it did, we’d see sendings-off every week. Context and intent matter, and neither suggested a red here. For a referee and a VAR team not to apply common sense and view the tackle in its proper context, is very disappointing. Kodai’s reaction to the tackle is very telling, by the way. He goes down, but immediately shrugs it off and exchanges pats with Song. No one on the BG team is baying for a red card. Everyone knows – this isn’t a red card. Well, everyone except Jansen, and the VAR. Accountability When players make mistakes, they get dropped from the team. When coaches make mistakes, they get sacked. When SPL referees make mistakes, there is seldom an explanation given, and the referee continues refereeing instead of being demoted to SFL or a lower level. There is a sense that the referees are untouchable. The abuse Jansen received from the stands, and online, wasn’t the result of one bad performance, however bad it was. It was the accumulation of frustration from years of bad performances. See my article on this from 2023. Even if the referees department feels that they didn’t make a mistake in this situation, there needs to be an explanation so that all parties can learn from it. Players and coaches need to know what is acceptable and unacceptable conduct so that they can play or plan accordingly. However, there is unlikely to be one. The PGMOL in England has their flaws as well, but what I like about them is that the audio between the VAR and the referee is released. I think it helps to build trust in our referees, and has the added benefit of allowing the fans to learn more about what is currently a very opaque process. At the end of the day, this mistake by Jansen and the VAR team didn’t affect our Sailors because we still qualified top of the group, and I suspect because of that, the refereeing department won’t see a need to address this, but they really, really should, for the good of our game. Does Song Need to Tone it Down?