Per this story about soccer player David Beckham getting a “reg flag”, they’re practically making it sound like the end of his career for the team he’s playing for. Is getting a “red flag” really that bad? How does the whole “flag” penalty system work?
: Son of a whore REAL-LY MAD … angry David Beckham and Louis Figo lead protests at assistant referee
Sigh… could a kindly mod move this to GQ.
Card. Not flag.
Referees have yellow cards (caution) and red cards (ejection). Two yellow cards equal a red card. Refs use the cards as a means of controlling player conduct. Beckham’s ejection meant that his team had to play the rest of the game a player short and, per the story, they lost as a result. Getting the red card in and of itself doesn’t spell the end of his career; the pattern of behaviour (this being his fourth red card) might.
You just miss one game. It’s just that it’s the 2nd to last game of the season and he might be trade in the off-season. Here’s the relevant bit:
Oh, and to clarify, it’s not necessary that a yellow card be given first. The ref has the option of giving a yellow or a red for the first offense.
I got a red card once for calling one of my own teammates a son of a bitch. I was about 12 and unlucky for me the ref not only heard me but had the same first name as my teammate and thought I was talking to him.
I thought in most of the premier European leagues a red got you sat down for the subsequent game too. No?
A red card is a minimum one game suspension. It can go up, and it certainly has. (If he gets a yellow card and then a red card, he’s really in hot water.) Also, getting a yellow card in consecutive games generally forces the player to sit out a game.
A red flag is used in auto racing when the track becomes unsafe for some reason, such as rain. It brings a complete halt to the race.
(Wow, I was actually able to contribute something to a GQ, and one that wasn’t even posted in the right forum! Cool! :D)
A likely excuse :dubious:
The Spanish league is a lot less physical than, say, the Premiership, and cards are generally rarer. Accordingly, penalties for cards are usually higher; while in the Premiership a red is only a one-game suspension (unless it leads to a player hitting 16 or 32 points… a bit like a driver’s license and complicated, don’t ask), in the Spanish league a “direct” red (a red card given without a yellow having already given, usually for throwing a punch or shoving the ref) almost always means an arbitrary 2-4 extra game suspensions on top of the usual one.
It has been mentioned more than once, but out of a perverse desire to contribute … something I’ll highlight it:
In the team sports that dominate the American scene, when a player gets ejected from a game his team is allowed to replace him on the field/court/rink. Not so in soccer: A player who gets “shown the red card and sent from the field of play,” as I believe the Laws quaintly word it, may not be replaced. His team plays the remainder of the game (beg pardon: match) one man short.
When a player gets issued one of these little gifts, the referee generally calls the sinner over and holds the card up in the air.
A yellow card is basically an official warning, generally for some variety of unsporting behavior. A second yellow card within a single game adds up to a red. When I’ve seen this happen, I believe the referee will first hold up his yellow card, immediately followed by the red. I assume this is to make clear that the second offense was “only” cautionable rather than ejection-worthy on its own (although the practical value of this distinction may be nothing).
The red-carded player must sit out the remainder of the current game (obviously) and, in most leagues I’m aware of, at least his team’s next game. Depending on the severity of what he did, the league may increase the length of the suspension.
In World Cup play, I believe two yellow cards (in different games) during the course of the tournament results in an automatic one-game suspension, as well.
I seem to recall FIFA being rather inflexible on the automatic suspension thing in recent World Cups. A player might get a red card which, upon review of the film, nearly everyone agrees was not deserved. The damage is done, so to speak, for the match in which the card was issued, but some would argue that the one-game suspension should not occur after a “bogus red card.” As I recall, however, in recent World Cups the governing bodies’ response has been, basically, “Tough cookies. See you in two games.”
Am I remembering this sort of thing accurately?
Been a while since I watched hockey (you did say “rink”) but IIRC if a player gets a penalty the team plays one player down for either the duration of the penalty or until the other team scores, whichever comes first.
Further qualification. ‘Whichever comes first’ only applies to a minor penalty(2 minutes) A major penalty(5 minutes) makes the player stay out for the whole duration. I remember a game a couple years ago in which St. Louis scored four goals while up a man on a major penalty power play.
Ultimately, though, they go back to six a side after the penalty is over (and yes, that’s five plus the goalkeeper). In soccer, if you get a red card in the first minute of the game your team is playing 10 on 11 for at least another 89 minutes and you are suspended for the following game as well (at the minimum).
I can’t think of a more debilitating penalty in any team sport.
Four red cards in what, nine years as a professional footballer is actually not a bad disciplinary record at all. Beckham’s misdemeanours tend to get exaggerated by the press, ever since he was famously sent off in an important World Cup match while playing for England. Since then, the media have been contractually obliged to use the word ‘petulant’ whenever he gets told off (I thought we’d got away with it this time, but there it is in the Sun article, near the bottom).
Hey, that’s my line! :mad: 
In fact it used to be worse. Until recently teams were only allowed one sub, always an outfield player (some players eg David Fairclough made a living as a “super-sub”.) This meant that if your goal keeper was sent off you had no replacement goalie to bring off the bench (sacrificing an outfield player).
That meant that an outfield player had to go in goal for the rest of the match.
Hilarity would invariably ensue.
(BTW if you get more than four players sent off in one match you forfeit the game 3-0)
Keep in mind that The Sun has a tendency to oversensationalize their sports articles as much as their news articles. However, Beckham hasn’t had the smoothest time fitting into Real’s side (I don’t follow La Liga very much, but I understand that they have him playing as a central midfielder instead of his more accustomed winger position), and rumors have begun to circulate about him leaving Spain.
The Sun is just feeding into those rumors by interpreting everything that Beckham does a sign that he’s about to return to England.
A red card, or even a poor disciplinary record, isn’t necessarily a sign that your career is over. Look at Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira, for instance–since he joined Arsenal, he’s received 70 yellow cards and 8 red in Premiership matches. And he’s also won 3 League titles and 3 FA Cups.
However, Vieira has a very good relationship with his manager, who’s given him his full support. If Beckham isn’t getting along with his teammates or his coach, he’ll probably have to leave. The president of Real is already announced that he’ll make changes in the team over the summer, so speculation is rife that Beckham might go (coach Carlos Queiroz will almost certainly be fired)–his red card wouldn’t be the cause, but it might be seen as a pattern of undesireable behavior on Beckham’s part.
Beckham’s problems have very little to do with football. It’s off the pitch he has to sort out - his wife won’t move to Spain and he has been playing away (as I am sure the whole wide world knows). It seems the Chelsea deal is a done deal. (There are also other reasons for this in that his major sponsors are Vodafone who aren’t keen on seing him in a shirt with “Siemens” written on it.)
However much being sent off hurt him it surely can’t be worse than having a “back, crack and sack” wax. The big girl’s blouse! (although a somewhat braver one than I 
).