Quote Originally Posted by Penguin View Post
First I've heard of it but that's right, I just googled the official rules:

"The sending-off (RC) remains for: handball holding, pulling and pushing (as these offences are not an attempt to play the ball) making no attempt to play the ball e.g. a deliberate trip an offence when there was no chance/possibility of the ball being played"
http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-...afMYp0gPrFq.99

They hid that quite well in the Q&A section at the bottom of the page.

It will be interesting to see if that rule is consistently applied because that kind of cynical challenge happens in almost every game. Not always as obviously as Xhaka's, but when do we NOT see someone being pulled back or fouled to stop a counter? If you go by the letter of the law that's now a red card offence. I could probably even find at least one example in last nights MOTD... what a ridiculous rule
What Xhaka was trying to do was blatant. That's the difference. He can't be given the benefit of the doubt with that challenge especially the way Barrow was killing us down the wing. In other cases you could argue it was a late challenge.