Video: Is Allison Baker worth the expulsion? Is Brighton's "hasty" goal legal?

Nasser Sadiq *

Angry reactions sparked by England referee Martin Atkinson's decision to fire Liverpool goalkeeper Alison Becker and then give a direct free-kick before the substitute Reds goalkeeper took the lead, resulting in Brighton's goal on Saturday in the 14th round of the Premier League.

Alison received the red card in the 76th minute after touching the ball with his hand outside the penalty area, blocking the opportunity to score, according to the opinion of the 49-year-old referee.

Hand touching is already in place, one of the cases that is punished with a direct free kick if committed by the goalkeeper outside his penalty area, but the referee and his assistant video referee (Var) did not concede the case as preventing an opportunity to score a goal. Four conditions in order to deserve expulsion, but if you lose only one condition turns to prevent a promising attack and deserve only warning.

The four conditions that must be met in the opportunity to score a goal are the distance, the direction towards the goal, the number of defenders who can spoil the opportunity, and the attacker's control of the ball.

In the case of Alison Becker, the striker who tried to pass the ball over him was not guaranteed to have a high probability that he would control the ball in the presence of a defender adjacent to him could have easily cleared the ball, and if we assume that he passed it directly into the goal, the distance was far and the pass was not so strong The defender also has to interrupt it, which means that it is closer to the most promising opportunity and deserves a warning only and not a cruel expulsion.

The other controversial case occurred when a free-kick resumed immediately after the dismissal of Alison Baker, where the referee applied the law but lacked the spirit of the law.There is no provision in the law requiring the goalkeeper to take his place - where he set the defenders wall - during the implementation of free kicks.

But in this particular case, the referee should have waived and did not give the signal of the execution of the kick only after the goalkeeper took his place because he was replaced only moments ago in an exceptional case rarely occurs in the stadiums, and this does not relieve the substitute goalkeeper of responsibility as he had to beware of such Act of judgment to speed more.

Despite the expulsion and the odd goal, Liverpool won 2-1 to take the tally to 40 points completely alone at the top of the Premier League, 11 points behind Manchester City and Leicester City, second and third place with 29 points each.

* Former international rule