Boca Juniors and Carlos Tevez could count themselves rather fortunate on Saturday afternoon after referee Luis Álvarez failed to punish the Argentina striker for his mistimed tackle that left 21-year-old Ezequiel Ham with a broken leg. If Tevez remaining on the pitch and Boca going onto pick up a crucial three points was not enough of a stroke of luck, the AFA disciplinary board have now stated that Tevez will face no further action but Álvarez will be suspended from the officiating the upcoming round of Primera fixtures.

Fernando Mitjans, head of the committee, told reporters outside the AFA headquarters: “We are not going to punish Tevez.” Given the seriousness of the injury and the force of the challenge it appears lenient in the extreme that Tevez would receive absolutely no sanction for the challenge that will keep Ham out for months.

Mitjans explained the rationale behind the decision – “It was with the intention of getting the ball. When you play football, you know that.” That is far from clear as Mitjans assumes but he added, “FIFA recommends that the committee should not get involved unless it is a serious case with intentionality, as was the case of (Luís) Suárez with (Giorgio) Chiellini. In the case of Tevez it is difficult to prove malicious intent.“

This is at least true, but even if it wasn’t malicious it was extremely reckless and the fact that referee, Luis Álvarez failed to spot it should surely mean some form of retrospective action would be logical. The fact that the AFA are punishing the official for his failure, surely is an admission that a serious incident went unnoticed.

Tevez has, of course, denied any wrong-doing and said after the match: “It makes me angry because I went for the ball, it was neither malicious nor my intention to hurt him. The touch told me I’d done something wrong.” This in itself, is an odd statement given that at the time, Tevez was one of the Boca players that attempted to play on despite Ham being in some distress.

Tevez was naturally unaware of the seriousness of the injury in the moment and upon hearing that the 21-year-old was in need of an immediate operation added: “I’m sad because I didn’t want to do anything bad to him. I’ve never hurt anyone, this is my first time. Now I’m going to see him and apologise, as I should do.”

In the cold light of day, Tevez is naturally going to feel a sense of guilt over the challenge but whether it was malicious or not, it should not have gone unpunished. Interestingly, footage prior to the challenge appears to show a little tension already between Tevez and Ham, as the Argentinos Juniors youngster snaps away at the international before a little verbal exchange between the pair.

This is not evidence that Tevez did intentionally harm Ezequiel Ham but as I already said, whether or not there was any malice, either Luis Álvarez and/or the AFA disiciplinary committee should have acted.

Mitjans further explained that the AFA treats every player the same – “We do not look at the shirt” – but it is very difficult to imagine that if Ezequiel Ham had just potentially ended the career of Carlos Tevez on Saturday the AFA would have been so lenient.

The suggestion that it is difficult to prove malice and that every club is treated equally is further undermined given that in February, the AFA banned José Nápoli of Primera C side, Dock Sud when his mistimed challenge broke the leg of Tallares’ Lucas Ferreiro. In this match, the referee only awarded a yellow card but Nápoli was later banned for a further five matches. 

If you skip the following video to 2:48 you can see the Nápoli tackle and it is tough to argue that it is worse than Tevez’s.

Boca and Tevez can give a huge sigh of relief but for most neutral observers it would appear the AFA have simply avoided getting involved in the incident and had it not been the leagues biggest star then the result would most likely have been different.