Erling Haaland is set for a punishment by the FA due to his comments made on Simon Hooper’s officiating in the 3-3 draw against Tottenham.
What did Haaland do?
Hooper blew the whistle for full-time when Haaland released Jack Grealish who was through on goal. That moment could’ve won the game for Manchester City in the dying moments.
Haaland was raging and confronted Hooper in an aggressive manner before taking to social media to further voice his opinion.
Haaland was shouting expletives and was booked by Hooper before getting involved in a clash with Tottenham players Giovani Lo Celso and Brennan Johnson after the final whistle.
On X, he commented ‘wtf’ under a still image of the moment Hooper blew for full-time.
— Erling Haaland (@ErlingHaaland) December 3, 2023
Haaland could be in a spot of bother with the FA for breaking social media guidelines, in particular Rule E3.1, which concerns: “Comments which are improper, which bring the game into disrepute, which are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting,” as well as “Comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials’ integrity or which are personally offensive in nature.”
It all comes in a season when the Football Association has been trying to tackle “completely unacceptable” referee abuse at a grassroots level. Football’s rulemakers are ready to trial the use of sin bins as part of a crackdown on player dissent.
No action for Hooper
This isn’t the only match where Hooper’s decision making has been questioned. He was refereeing the Spurs and Liverpool game earlier on in the season which saw bizarre red cards to Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota. Also featured a Luis Diaz goal that was wrongfully ruled out but that was more of an error by VAR.
Hooper has received punishment this season for failing to award Wolves a penalty in the opening match of the season against Manchester United. He was demoted that game but it looks like he will escape further punishment from the Manchester City game.
Dermot Gallagher on Ref’s Watch backed Hooper claiming he hasn’t done anything wrong. He said: “Difficult because this is a lad who I’d say plays advantage more than anybody. He quite rightly plays on and for whatever reason Simon then blows up.
“If he’d have waited a second later the whole landscape changes. Technically, by law, he hasn’t done anything wrong. It is the ref’s choice to play advantage, not anybody else.”
Further reactions
When Pep Guardiola was asked about Hooper’s incredible decision to stop the game when Grealish was one-on-one, Guardiola said: “I will not do a Mikel Arteta comment. I make mistakes, the players make mistakes. I don’t want to criticise him. On the touchline sometimes I lose my mind and my gestures are not proper but here [in the post-match press conference] normally for many years as a manager I’m not a guy when I’m refreshed to comment.”
Haaland’s dad, Aflie Haaland also took to X to voice his disgust on the decision, commenting under his son’s post, ‘terrible.’
Terrible.
— Alfie Haaland (@alfiehaaland) December 3, 2023
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