Blatter seeks life bans on bad tackles

FIFA president Sepp Blatter believes that players guilty of deliberately dangerous tackles should be banned from football, The Times reported on Friday.

Blatter made the comments in an interview before Saturday's meeting, at Gleneagles, Scotland, of the International Football Board, which oversees the rules of the game.

"Dangerous tackling is one of the most important issues in football at the moment," Blatter was quoted as saying.

"Players who do this kind of thing intentionally should be banned from the game."

Blatter pointed the finger of blame at coaches but also called for a tougher stance by referees.

"The mechanism where this happens today is obvious," he said. "The pressure on the coach or manager to win is such that he encourages his players to go for victory at any cost.

"There is no microphone in the dressing-room, so he says, 'Go, go, go'. Until when? Until the point where the referee intervenes.

"Some referees have in their mind, 'How long can I let the game go without giving a card?' They think they are good referees if the game flows for 20 minutes without an interruption.

"But the referees must give yellow cards or red cards in the first three or four minutes if necessary and we will call for them to do so. Then the referee will have peace on the pitch.

Blatter said the problem used to be tackling from behind but now players are making dangerous challenges from the front and side.

"This is a matter we will discuss this weekend." he said. "We will not only make recommendations to the referees, we will instruct them to be stronger against this violence."

Opening up the prospect of possible legal action, Blatter added: "Attacking somebody is criminal, whether it happens on a football pitch or elsewhere. It is a crime and should be treated as such."

The issue of bad tackles was brought into sharp focus in the Premier League last month when Arsenal's Croatia striker Eduardo da Silva suffered a horrific leg break and ankle dislocation in a game against Birmingham City.

Birmingham defender Martin Taylor was red-carded for the tackle. He later said it was an accident.

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