Talking Sport with Craig Salmon - It is high time football's 'professional offenders' paid the real penalty

There have been a few terms used to describe the controversial finale of Liverpool’s Premier League fixture against Manchester City earlier this year at Anfield.

Farcical, daft, crazy – and definitely unjust – are the terms I would use when thinking back to the moment referee Craig Pawson, via a VAR intervention, disallowed Rayan Cherki’s goal in stoppage time.

With City fighting back to lead 2-1 – and keep their Premier League title hopes alive – the Reds pushed forward in search of a last-ditch stoppage-time equaliser.

Goalkeeper Allisson Becker was thrust forward for a corner, but the visitors counter-attacked to devastating effect.

With Alisson stranded, Cherki rolled the ball with precision from the halfway line towards goal.

City goal machine Erling Haaland set off like a greyhound chasing a hare with the intention of making sure the ball met its final destination of the back of the net. In hot pursuit was Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai, who had earlier given the hosts the lead with a sublime free-kick.

However, clearly losing the foot race with Haaland, Szoboszlai tugged at the shirt of the Norwegian super star causing him to lose all momentum.

In turn, Haaland tugged back at the shirt of Szoboszlai – but while all this was happening, the ball continued its merry way before nestling in the back of the net as the referee I presumed played an advantage.

The goal was given, City and their fans celebrated wildly – that is until VAR intervened.

The video assistant instructed Pawson that by the letter of the law, he should disallow the goal, award the visitors a free-kick outside the area and show the red card to Szoboszlai.

I imagine Pawson, when he announced his decision using his microphone, was relieved that City were already ahead in the game – imagine the protests of boss Pep Guardiola if the scoreline was all square and his team had been denied what would have been a clear winning goal.

Although a slightly different scenario, the incident made me cast my mind back to one of the iconic – although I would call it infamous – moments in Premier League history involving another Norwegian super star.

Remember when Newcastle United ace Rob Lee was clean through on goal, with only Manchester United goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw to beat at Old Trafford in 1998?

If you’re old enough to remember, the Toon midfielder looked set to give Newcastle a famous 2-1 victory until he was cynically brought down outside the penalty area by United substitute Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the 89th minute.

The Norwegian striker had sprinted almost the entire length of the pitch before kicking Lee just as he was readying himself to slot the ball home.

Solskjaer had no intention of playing the ball, his aim was solely to take ‘one for the team’ and prevent the visitors from scoring what likely would have been a late winning goal, as well as ensuring the offence was committed outside the box, thus denying the visitors a penalty kick.

Of course, for his troubles, Solskjaer was shown the red card for the act of committing a ‘professional foul’.

As he trudged off the pitch, he was given a pat of gratitude from team-mate David Beckham, while the adoring Stretford End gave him a hero’s send-off as he disappeared down the players’ tunnel.

As it transpired, the free-kick awarded to Newcastle outside the box – like City’s against Liverpool – came to nothing, the Red Devils played out the remaining few minutes of the match with 10 men to earn a point.

Was justice served on each of these occasions?

Both City and Newcastle were ultimately cheated out of a clear goalscoring opportunity – and in the Magpies’ case, a likely three points.

The punishments meted out to Szoboszlai and Solskjaer meant both teams got the advantage of playing against 10 men for all of a minute or so, plus stoppage time.

There’s an argument to suggest that the real winners were Liverpool and Manchester United’s respective opponents in the following game as the players in question would have been busy serving a suspension.

It’s always been an oddity to me that football’s rule makers decree that the punishment for a clear denial of a goalscoring opportunity is a red card to the offending player.

After all, football is ultimately part of the entertainment industry and reducing a team numerically dilutes the sport as a competitive spectacle.

Instead of sending a player off, why not award a penalty kick – even if the ‘professional foul’ has taken place outside of the area?

The penalty kick was first devised in the late 19th century, implemented to combat intentional fouls which clearly prevented goals, the concept of the penalty area came later.

If the referee deems a clear goalscoring opportunity has been denied through foul play, then instead of sending the offending player off, why not give the official the power to award a clear goalscoring opportunity in the shape of a spot-kick?

It would be a similar concept to rugby, where officials are able to award a ‘penalty try’ if they deem an obvious try-scoring opportunity has been denied due to foul play.

Would a ‘penalty goal’ work in football? I am not so sure – maybe in terms of Cherki’s disallowed effort, it has some leverage.

I would love to see football referees, backed up by VAR, given more discretionary powers to ensure real justice is served. An eye for an eye is the saying – or a clear goalscoring opportunity for a clear goalscoring opportunity in this instance.

I am pretty sure that both Newcastle and City in these examples would have preferred another clear goalscoring opportunity, rather than seeing Szoboszlai and Solskjaer respectively given their marching orders.