The great pre-war forward Hughie Gallacher was tough. “The wee fellow was not born. He was quarried,” an opponent said. Only two players have exceeded his total of 386 league goals in British football but Gallacher could have scored so many more.

Just 5ft 5in, he was kicked relentlessly by defenders. His legs, said teammates, wore a road map of pits and scars and were permanently purple and blue. He once sat in a dressing room at half-time with blood dripping from his socks and tears streaming from his eyes. “My patience and quick temper were tried to the utmost,” Gallacher recalled, “by players of lesser skill.”

Football, thankfully, tries to protect its geniuses nowadays. The Gallachers of the game are hailed more than they are hacked. And yet a succession of controversies, involving players punished with red or yellow cards for challenges that in a previous age might not even have been considered fouls, have prompted influential voices to ask if the pendulum has swung too far the other way.

Another week, another round of fall-outs between managers and referees: when Manchester United met Everton, David Moyes was furious that Alan Wiley cautioned Phil Neville for “a fantastic tackle” on Cristiano Ronaldo while Sir Alex Ferguson ranted about Wayne Rooney’s “booking for nothing”, a challenge on Mikel Arteta. Even mild-mannered Gianfranco Zola was at it, condemning Phil Dowd after West Ham’s game at Arsenal for showing Carlton Cole a red rather than yellow card for mistiming a slide tackle on Alex Song.

Referees can never win but now they are starting to feel they can only lose. “There has been no change of rules or anything. What we’re doing is trying to cut down on the dangerous tackles, which is surely what people want,” said one of England’s most senior referees. Footballers, though, are starting to ask questions similar to that put by Bolton’s Kevin Davies, who has conceded more fouls than any other player over the past three seasons in the Premier League.

Davies sees himself as a “committed” rather than a dirty footballer and said: “If you see someone run 30-odd yards to win the ball it gets the team and the fans going. Then, when the referee gives a foul, you think, ‘What’s the point?’”

Is tackling about to join the maximum wage and goalkeep-ers picking up backpasses in the graveyard of former footballing practices? Craig Burley, the Setanta Sports pundit and former Chelsea midfielder, said: “It keeps me awake at night. It’s got to the stage where you turn up for games and, unless it’s one player blatantly tripping another, you don’t know which way the ref’s going to go when there’s a challenge for a ball. Nothing? Foul? Yellow card? More? We’ll end up with a game of tig or netball the way things are going.”

Burley was involved in a furious studio argument on the issue with ex-referee Graham Poll when Rob Styles awarded a penalty against Habib Beye and sent off the Newcastle defender for a tackle from the side in which he dispossessed Robinho and at the same time upended the Brazilian.

Beye’s red card was rescinded on appeal but Poll spoke for many officials who agreed with Styles who, after reviewing the game on video, maintained his decision had been correct. The different interpretations of the incident stemmed from the same source as many of this season’s debated punishments for tackles: what the modern definition of a foul should be.

“It’s an uncertain time for players and refs are under huge pressure to get it right,” said a second referee, who officiates in the professional game.

Fifa, often by making tournaments watersheds, influence any change in emphasis on how the laws of the game are applied. A quest to offer attacking players greater protection began with the 1994 World Cup, which featured a crack-down on tackling from behind. Concerned about the greater scope for serious injury caused by an increase in the speed of play and physical power at the top level, the governing body have put recent pressure on referees in all countries to enforce a stricter definition of “serious foul play”, a key phrase relating to tackling found in the statutes under Law 12.

In England, incidents such as the leg fracture suffered by Arsenal’s Eduardo in February prompted even greater focus and a “get tough” policy has been active since the latter part of last season. Keith Hackett, general manager of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), told referees at a national conference in July: “Challenges that endanger the safety of an opponent are unna-ceptable and you had the courage, quite correctly, to go to the straight red [card]. The player has to have control over the speed and intensity of a challenge. It’s your duty to see, think and act. You cannot duck responsibility.”

Though referees visited clubs in preseason to outline the drive against “serious foul play”, the playing and coaching fraternity appear at odds with officials on definitions. Our second referee explains: “Being in control of the challenge is the key issue. Because of that, two feet off the ground is an absolute no-no. There’s speed, a tackle that might be okay in parks football can become dangerous when it involves a footballer moving at almost the pace of a professional sprinter, and there’s intent: what opportunity is there to play the ball?

“What is the player doing so he doesn’t endanger his opponent? If the studs are up, none. If he’s coming in from the side, what’s he doing with the trailing leg? Is it going to come through after the ball is played and make contact with the opponent? That can be avoided by leaving the trailing leg behind.”

That such factors are considered is why players can be shown cards even when, at some point of the offending challenge, they make contact with the ball. “Where televi-sion replays don’t help is that when you slow a challenge down you don’t see the speed or the intent,” said the referee.

Traditionalists from the playing side are not impressed. “I keep hearing, ‘Just because he played the ball it doesn’t mean it’s not a free kick’. For the life of me I don’t understand that,” said Burley. “There are all these buzz phrases, ‘momentum’, ‘overaggression’, ‘trailing leg’, but if you win the ball first how’s it not a fair challenge? Like it or not, every challenge has the potential to cause injury, you can’t get rid of that. Not every player can be Cesc Fabregas or Robinho.

“The talent of some is as ball-winners, they’ve worked on those skills all their careers and they’re necessary to the team. My worry is what happens to them? Go to any ground in Britain and a 50-50 challenge will get bums off the seats as much as a good shot or pass. Fans want to see the passion.”

Paul Parker, named by Ferguson as among the finest tack-lers he has managed, said: “Everything, now, is about giving advantage to the attackers but why? Defending is an art. Shoul-dn’t there be help for defenders as well?”

Beyond argument is that football is changing. ProZone statistics show defenders and central midfielders now make an average of only three tackles per Premier League game and those in other positions fewer. Figures provided by Opta reveal the average game features 23% fewer tackles than five years ago and there are fewer tackles committed per foul awarded and fewer fouls committed per yellow card issued. “It’s less ofa contact sport now,” said Davies. The debate is whether that’s good or bad.

Time running out on the art of defending

PREM LG 2008-09: MOST FOULS CONCEDED
Marouane Fellaini Everton 32 Kevin Davies Bolton 31 John Carew Aston Villa 27 Lee Cattermole Wigan 26 Vincent Kompany Man City 24 Bobby Zamora Fulham 24

MOST FREE KICKS WON
Valon Behrami West Ham 33 Kevin Davies Bolton 30 Amr Zaki Wigan 28 Shaun W-Phillips Man City 25 Stilian Petrov Aston Villa 25 Jimmy Bullard Fulham 24

- Up until yesterday, Everton’s Marouane Fellaini had committed more fouls in the Premier League than any other player this season with 32. Bolton’s Kevin Davies was just behind, on 31. Ironically, Davies was also the second most-fouled player, with 30 offences against him

PREM LG SINCE 2006-07: FOULS CONCEDED
Kevin Davies Bolton 217 George Boateng Middlesbrough/Hull 158 John Carew Aston Villa 151 Gareth Barry Aston Villa 144 Dimitar Berbatov Tottenham/Man Utd 141

- In the last three seasons, Davies has conceded the most fouls (217, just over 3 per game). In that time he has been involved in a foul every 15 minutes

Premier League 2003-04 2008-09
Foul per yellow 9.69 8.85 Yellow per foul 0.10 0.12 Tackles per game 57.58 44.30 Tackle per foul 2.04 1.66

- Tackles have decreased from five seasons ago, with referees blowing for a foul every 1.66 tackles as opposed to every 2.04 tackles in 2003-04