Michael Ball blasts PGMOL over Man City v Fulham incident after Michael Keane’s hair-pulling ban
Former Everton defender Michael Ball has blasted the apparent inconsistent refereeing over pulling opposition players’ hair.
Everton centre-back Michael Keane was banned for three games after being sent off for pulling the hair of Wolves’ Tolu Arokodare on 7 January in the Premier League.
Although hair-pulling is not mentioned in the Laws of the Game, it is categorised as violent conduct.
After the sending off at Hill Dickinson Stadium, Everton boss David Moyes said, “If you have longer hair, then there’s a fair chance you’ll get it pulled.”
However, if you don’t pull a player’s hair, there is little to no chance of getting dismissed. Now, Everton fans are fuming as Fulham’s Tete wasn’t sent off for an apparent hair pull on Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo on Wednesday night.
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Everton hero points out inconsistent refereeing after Man City and Chelsea incidents
During City’s home clash with Fulham, VAR checked the incident with Tete and Semenyo but the Cottagers defender escaped a booking, never mind a red card.
As a result, Ball took to social media to contrast how Keane was treated by the officials versus Semenyo at the Etihad. He classed Tete’s one as “deliberate” but Keane’s one was “challenging in the air”.
Last summer, a similar incident to the aforementioned ones happened at the Club World Cup in North America.
During the final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, the Premier League side were easing to a convincing 3-0 victory against the Champions League holders.
As frustrations threatened to boil over, PSG’s Joao Neves received a straight red after pulling Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella’s hair.
Ergo, the officiating over matters such as this needs to be consistent, else outbursts like Ball’s will become more commonplace and merited.
Everton lose ground in European football race as home form costs them
Many Everton fans were heartbroken to leave their beloved Goodison Park at the end of last season, bringing to an end more than a century of games there.
However, there was a great deal of excitement ahead of moving into their new home, the state-of-the-art Hill Dickinson Stadium.
While it looks immaculate, Everton haven’t made it into a fortress just yet as try to they settle into their new surroundings.
While David Moyes’ side have the fifth-best away record in the division, they are down in 14th for home form this term.
A total of 16 points from a possible 39 does not make for great reading, with this kind of form unlikely to secure them European football next season.
At the time of writing, Everton are still eighth, and sit just two points of seventh-placed Brentford, who are in the last European qualification spot.
But their 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth on Tuesday was another missed opportunity, especially as they went a goal to the good.
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