Talk:Sliding tackle

Ball/player contact
I would like to point out that according to the 2008 / 2009 FIFA Laws of the Game, players are no longer required to touch the ball before they touch the player in a slide tackle. I'm not exactly sure how to reflect this law change in the article, perhaps someone else can do it for me. --Aristeo (talk) 19:32, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

How many rocks do you find on Football pitches? Surely there's a better example? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.111.30.93 (talk) 01:18, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes I'm (boldly) going to remove that bit... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.6.96.22 (talk) 08:55, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Commonly associated fouls and misconduct
There are some serious problems with the last paragraph.

"Slide tackles from behind or with both legs extended have now been outlawed due to the injury and danger to other players that it causes."

This sentence is not true at all - there is no reference to this in the present (2014/15) FIFA Laws of The Game. The Laws of The Game outlaw challenges that are are made with "excessive force" and "endanger the safety of an opponent" which means "the player has far exceeded the necessary use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent". A tackle from behind or with both legs is therefore only illegal if it endangers the safety of an opponent.

I can envision slide tackles from behind that aren't even fouls, let alone worth cautions of sending-offs. Players may slide from behind in a controlled manner and then hook a leg around the side, catching the the ball and not touching their opponent. Vidic's first tackle here is an example of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhllbB8bmI

Tackles from behind are generally only problematic when they go straight through the back of an opponent's legs, collecting the opponent as well as the ball, or when they are dangerous lunges (I believe this tackle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bgB5huv8c&t=1m56s should have been a send-off even if he didn't touch his opponent).

I can also imagine challenges made with both legs extended that aren't illegal either. Consider a player who slides across in front of an opponent with both legs in order to trap the ball, without sliding directly at or into an opponent. There is an example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Rnt5C2qaQ

"These tackles generally earn the player who commits them a straight red card, even if the ball is won cleanly and the tackle is not technically a foul."

The final premise of this sentence is incorrect. If a player challenges for the ball using excessive force, they are sent off for serious foul play. There is a foul committed here, one of the direct free kick offences in Law 12. The foul is either "kicks an opponent with excessive force", "trips an opponent with excessive force" or "tackles an opponent with excessive force". Therefore it is still technically a foul.

This paragraph can probably be reduced to:

"Slide tackles that are made as two-footed lunges at an opponent are generally considered to endanger the safety of an opponent and are hence sanctioned as serious foul play, resulting in a sending-off. This is still the case even if the ball is won cleanly without touching an opponent." 203.39.159.20 (talk) 01:32, 21 November 2014 (UTC)