Cast your thoughts again to August 2022. Tottenham defender Cristian Romero tugged again Chelsea‘s Marc Cucurella by his hair.
The VAR, Mike Dean, opted not to intervene for an apparent pink card.
It created a line within the sand. From that time on, a zero tolerance method was adopted.
Has the hair been tugged? Then it is a pink card for violent conduct.
A strict software means we have now to just accept that there are circumstances, like Keane and Martinez, the place the punishment seems too extreme.
It is a bit like handball within the Champions League. People don’t like a few of the penalties, however they know what they’re getting.
If you need consistency then you definitely can not have widespread sense too.
After the Keane pink card, referees’ boss Howard Webb was very clear that hair pulling was “quite an offensive thing”.
“It was the appropriate outcome,” Webb stated. “It was unusual but if we see it again next week it will be the same outcome.”
It took a couple of months earlier than we did see it in related circumstances with Martinez, and Webb was proved to be right.
There has solely been one different VAR pink card within the Premier League, for Southampton’s Jack Stephens on Cucurella.
There have been a number of different situations within the Club World Cup, Women’s Super League and Women’s Euros.
Hair pulling is a kind of darkish arts which is normally solely noticed by means of video proof.
It occurs off the ball however is extra identifiable than the refined elbow to the chest or a nip to the abdomen.
Even within the EFL, which doesn’t have VAR, Ipswich’s Leif Davis was lately banned after being picked up on digital camera pulling the hair of Leicester’s Caleb Okoli.
Evidence is just not at all times clear, nevertheless.
Fulham‘s Kenny Tete may have been despatched off for yanking the hair of Manchester City‘s Antoine Semenyo in February. It might effectively have occurred, however the VAR didn’t really feel the proof was conclusive sufficient for a evaluation.
