Reducer Challenge

The ‘reducer’ is a brutal foul on an important player of the opposing team with the goal of injuring and taking them out of the game. This unacceptable and frowned-upon offense is often performed by a player of lesser ability than the player that is being targeted.

The term reducer might be fairly new, but the strategy itself can be traced to the beginning of the sport.

The crunching knee height challenges are seen too often on the football pitch. They happen more frequently in lower division leagues that are out of the spotlight, but from time to time they happen even on the biggest of football stages.

Juan Zuniga hit on Neymar at the Brazil World Cup is perhaps one of the most brutal examples of a reducer challenge. It resulted with Neymar fracturing a vertebra in his spine, which forced him out of the tournament.

Despite being bookable offenses, the reducer challenges, or hatchet jobs as some call them, are not punishable hard enough in today’s game.