Lionel Messi should be protected by referees, not media

Filipe Luis accused La Liga referees and the Spanish media of protecting Lionel Messi

Filipe Luis received a red card and a three match ban when Atletico Madrid and Barcelona met in La Liga action in January and the fullback discussed the sending off with the press. The Brazilian accepted responsibility for the tackle and the red card but went on the offensive about what he feels is unfair treatment for the Argentine.

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Luis told Football Espana, “He’s protected by the Press and by the League. I believe they don’t want one of their best players of all time to be injured and not play.” Well thank you for stating the obvious but he does have a bit of a point.

The first part about being protected by the press is true. Messi has his fair share of skeletons in the closet related to tax allegations but we rarely hear of these charges as being anything other than routine investigations. As for his play, he is lauded by the media for what he does on the pitch and rightfully so.

Messi does not need that protection from the press and in this specific case, he does not deserve it. Luis’s challenge was poorly timed but judging from the media reaction you would think he went in two-footed and aimed for Messi’s thighs to chop him down.

As you can see quite clearly from the video, both players went for a 50-50 ball and Luis not being the most technically gifted player, mis-timed his touch and missed and hit Messi.

Regardless of intent it was a red card worthy challenge but not deserving of all this hubbub about “HORROR tackles” and the like.

As for his protection by the referees, Messi and every other creative player deserves that sort of protection from reckless and dangerous challenges. For the Argentine in particular, the only way to truly contain him is to get physical and try to throw him off his game.

This leads to dangerous challenges that could end in injury for Messi and that is a terrible situation for his club and La Liga as a whole. Much like the NFL knows it must protect its quarterbacks, football leagues all over the world need to do a better job of protecting their stars from reckless challenges.

Messi himself exacerbates this issue by not going down easily the way many others do so referees often swallow their whistles and allow play to go on when he is tackled. He also does not make a meal of those challenges by diving theatrically and yelling in agony in hopes of getting his opponent booked.

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As silly as it sounds, referees need to do a better job of refereeing when Messi and other players that stay on their feet are tackled. They need to get better at differentiating between a true foul and one that a player shrugs off to continue playing so defenders will know that their actions will be punished. If they do not, then players will continue embellishing fouls and besmirching the game with their antics.

Let us know in the comments if you think Filipe Luis has a point and if that really was a “HORROR tackle” or not.

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