Patrick Barclay: See no evil is no answer for the FA

 
20 March 2013

Criticising the Football Association is never much fun because the organisation are full of good intentions but they have let the game down with the announcement that Callum McManaman will face no consequences for that hideous tackle on Massadio Haidara.

There are times when the football community stops and gapes in near disbelief. Watching on television, I felt something akin to nausea and it was also detectable in the voices of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole when they were asked at half-time about the Wigan player’s knee-high studding — the revulsion clearly lingered.

So imagine how Haidara (above) feels as he awaits a verdict on the extent of the damage. McManaman, by contrast, is able to savour even the anticipatory thrill of a Wembley appearance, for the FA have rendered him eligible for the Cup semi-final against Millwall.

I was looking forward to that one — weren’t you? — but FA officials have contrived to pollute their own showpiece event. The excuse, as ever, lies amid the web of regulation with which the FA, Premier League and professional referees insist on trussing themselves. But in this case the relevant rule has been misapplied.

According to the FA, “at least one of the match officials saw the coming-together, though not the full extent of the challenge. In these circumstances retrospective action cannot be taken.”

It is difficult to believe that even football could have thrown up someone daft enough to devise such a criterion, such an obvious encouragement to blind-side villainy — but even more beyond credence that the linesman Matthew Wilkes saw enough of this “coming-together” while referee Mark Halsey was unsighted to make a reasonable judgment on his own account.

The FA could easily have handled this one in the game’s interests. There is a company, Football Factors — run by their former compliance man Graham Bean — that specialise in driving the coach and horses of common sense through their disciplinary procedures. The FA could have done worse than turn to them.

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