Fulham's Sascha Riether could get off stamp on Manchester United starlet Adnan Januzaj thanks to Fernando Torres
Fulham's Sascha Riether could get off stamp on Manchester United starlet Adnan Januzaj thanks to Fernando Torres
Same loophole in FA rules that saw Chelsea star escape after clawing Jan Vertonghen's face may now rescue Cottagers' defender
Deal or no deal: Riether could accept his ban or fight and possibly see it extended
Boris Streubel
Fulham defender Sascha
Riether faces a three-match ban after becoming the first player to be
judged by the Premier League’s “star chamber” of former referees.
Riether escaped sanction from match official Lee Probert for his injury-time stamp on Manchester United’s Adnan Januzaj on Saturday.
While Probert was clearly running towards the four-man melee that also included the champions' Marouane Fellaini and Riether’s teammate Pajtim Kasami, he told the FA that he had not seen the incident.
United
boss David Moyes described it as “a bad stamp that did look deliberate”
and demanded more protection for Januzaj from referees. Let-off? Can Riether be punished if the officials saw part of this incident?
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Probert’s report meant the case was referred to the new panel
of former whistlers, introduced for incidents in Premier League games
this season.
The trio - Alan Wiley, Eddie Wolstenholme and Steve
Dunn -unanimously agreed that Riether deserved a red card for the
incident, and a charge of violent conduct was levied by disciplinary
chiefs on Monday.
Riether and the Cottagers have until 6pm on Tuesday to accept the charge and automatic suspension or contest it.
While
the stamp itself appears an open and shut case, Fulham have been
advised by disciplinary experts that the FA’s own precedent - set when Fernando Torres escaped sanction for scratching the face of Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen - could give them an avenue to beat the ban. Let-off: Officials saw part of THIS incident and Torres was not punished
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Justifying the lack of charge against Torres, the FA stated
that “one of the match officials saw the coming together of the two
players, albeit not in its entirety”.
On Saturday, while Probert
evidently missed the stamp, he was running to the incident from 20 yards
away and blew his whistle, then issued Riether with no more than a
warning for his conduct.
That suggests he also partially witnessed the “coming together”.
Fulham
were understood to be considering their options having been told of the
potential loophole, but are weighing up the danger of the FA extending
the ban beyond three games if the Wembley beaks rule against Riether.
United manager Moyes blasted the German, but said it is up to referees to take action.
He said: “I hadn’t seen it until after the game - the view from the dug-out made it impossible to see.
"It’s a bad stamp and it does look deliberate. But that’s for the referee to deal with on the day, as far as I’m concerned.
“Or if, as nowadays, they look at it differently, then they’ll do that and decide what they want to do, but it’s over now.
“But
I do think Adnan is going to need a little bit protection or we’re
going to find he’s getting kicked up and down. He deserves a little bit
more protection than he’s getting at this moment in time.”
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