Global Sports : FA Punishments ‘confused’

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Matt Le Tissier believes the long bans handed to Papiss Cisse and Jonny Evans shows the Football Association is “confused” when it comes to handing out punishments.
The FA announced on Saturday morning they had banned Newcastle striker Cisse for seven games and Manchester United defender Evans for six matches for spitting.
The duo have been punished following an altercation during Wednesday’s Premier League clash at at St James’ Park, Cisse’s suspension a game longer due to an elbowing incident earlier this season.
But speaking on Soccer Saturday, Le Tissier questioned the method used by the FA to reach their decision, highlighting respective punishments for other offences.
The FA has handed out recent retrospective bans to Mile Jedinak (four games) for elbowing West Ham forward Diafra Sakho and Diego Costa (three games) for a stamp on Emre Can but decided not to ban Hull City’s Maynor Figueroa after a challenge on Stephen Ireland left him needing a dozen stitches.
Le Tissier said: “It appears that the FA are confused.
“I’m sure they have got rules in place when all the controversial incidents come up but it does seem some incidents are getting far harsher punishments than others. Someone could get seriously injured in a certain situation but another incident is going to get a far longer ban.
“I think something needs to be done. There needs to be more clarity. There needs to be a huge sit-down with the whole group of people – the players, managers, referees – to work out some kind of tariff based on every kind of suspension they’ve given out in the past.
“They need to sit down and say ‘this is the punishment for this’ and ‘this is the punishment for that’. So, everybody knows at the start of the season if you do that offence, you know what is coming because at the moment it doesn’t seem as that is the case.”
Le Tissier also believes the referees need more help and would benefit from the use of video technology, even though he admits players must take more responsibility for their conduct. “I think a few referees would accept video help during the game,” he added.
“You can’t always see everything but I think the problem lies with the people at the top. The players need to help the referees too. Stop diving and have a duty of care to your fellow professionals.
“We understand the FA want to try and protect the referees as much as they can and I think they do that because they worry about the numbers of referees they have got. I don’t think they want people being put off becoming a referee.
“For me, the FA have gone too far in protecting them. Referees have to accept a little bit of criticism but sometimes when I watch a game I can understand why a referee may have made a wrong decision due to the angle they are at. We get loads of angles to watch it on.
“Why can’t the FA give them a little bit of help and say ‘yes we are backing you, but we want to come to a correct decision when bad tackles have been made’. I don’t think that would be a massive problem for referees – I think they would accept that.”

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