I sincerely hope that Benfica’s Augustin Binya is hit with a harsh ban for his horror tackle on Celtic’s Scott Brown. Actually, to term it a tackle is an injustice. It really was nothing more than an assault and attempt to injure Brown. The closest I’ve seen to this is when Manchester United’s Roy Keane tried to do in Alf Inge Haaland. There was a bit of history to that one as Keane felt Haaland had taunted him when he was injured in a match in 1997 when Haaland was with Leeds. Keane waited until 2001 to seek his revenge. The Binya tackle seemed to appear out of frustration rather than revenge as in Keane’s case. I’ve posted links to both videos so that you can compare for yourself.
For the record, both incidents are distasteful and have no place in the game. Keane ended up being banned for eight matches after admitting that he intended to hurt Haaland. Martin Hansson, the Swedish referee, showed Binya a straight red card, and was quoted as saying:
“I couldn’t say it was the worst tackle I’ve ever seen because I’ve refereed a lot of matches and seen a lot of bad challenges,” Hansson said. “But it is certainly one of the worst tackles and there is no doubt in my mind it fully merited a straight red card.”
Uefa have confirmed they will investigate the tackle which saw Binya catch Brown just beneath his right knee.
Binya:
Keane:
