Amateur Dramatics Cost Beckham Dear

David Beckham’s heart must have skipped a beat when he saw that the appointed referee for England’s World Cup qualifier against Austria was none other than his old friend from Spain, Luis Medina Cantalejo.

Where these two are concerned, there is definitely a bit of ‘previous’. The highlight of earlier encounters was almost certainly Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey quarter final against Valencia in the 2003-4 season, when the Spanish referee got his first opportunity to dismiss the England captain.

Clearly, he hasn’t lost the knack. He issued the first yellow for an aerial challenge on Austrian defender Andreas Ibertsberger, in which Beckham’s only crime was to jump using his arms for balance. Senor Cantalejo would do well to remember that it is virtually impossible to jump powerfully without any assistance from the arms. And if he doubts that he should retire to a quiet corner of Spain, pin his arms to his sides and see how far up he can get.

In order to justify the award of a free kick, much less a booking, Beckham would have had to deliberately use his arm to injure his opponent, but television replays indicated that there was no such attempt. Perhaps Ibertsberger’s reaction, which was sufficiently dramatic to have alerted the attention of scouts from the World Wrestling Federation, might have influenced the referee in some way.

Just minutes later, the same two players clashed again – this time on the edge of the England penalty area – when the England captain appeared to bring down Ibertsberger, who threw himself into the box and looked up hopefully. There was no penalty, so the Austrian had to content himself with seeing his opponent receive the second yellow and subsequent red – despite the fact that (as TV replays also confirmed) Beckham had, in fact, pulled out of the challenge.

Senor Cantalejo’s biographical information suggests that he has played the game and that he comes from a family of referees. In the light of his performance in the England v Austria match, and particularly his treatment of David Beckham, both details are surprising. On the other hand, the fact that he has barely three years experience as an international referee will astonish no-one.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that David Beckham was sent off with unwarranted haste through a combination of Austrian histrionics and official incompetence and as a result he will miss the game against Poland. Neither incident justified a yellow card and there are many who will agree that neither was a foul. After a harrowing week worrying about the health of his son Romeo, this dismissal was absolutely the last thing he needed.

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