Man City slapped with FA charge for furious reaction to Tottenham controversy

Players surrounded referee Simon Hooper as late scoring chance denied
Marc Mayo4 December 2023

The FA have charged Manchester City with failing to control their players following the controversial incident that marred the end of their 3-3 draw with Tottenham on Sunday.

After Dejan Kulusevski had headed a late leveller to peg City back at the Etihad Stadium, the hosts thought they were set for a huge opportunity to win a thrilling game.

Erling Haaland was tripped in the centre circle but quickly rose to his feet and a ball over the top found Jack Grealish to run through on goal, however referee Simon Hooper blew his whistle to bring the play back for the foul on Haaland.

That led to a furious response from the Norwegian striker, plus several teammates, who surrounded Hooper to argue that he should have played the advantage and allowed Grealish to continue his attack.

On Monday, the FA announced a charge with a breach of Rule E20.1 for the club "failing to ensure their players did not behave in a way which is improper".

City have until Thursday, December 7 to respond.

The Premier League champions face a fine if found guilty.

Hooper, 41, has faced criticism for his failure to play advantage but will not be stood down from refereeing in this coming midweek's round of matches. He will referee Sheffield United vs Liverpool at Bramall Lane.

The official found an ally in ex-referee Dermot Gallagher after City's draw with Tottenham, who said he did not technically go against the rulebook but did make the wrong call on this occasion.

He told Sky Sports: "It's the referee's choice to play advantage - nobody else's - so by the law he has not done anything wrong. It's just how we apply the law."

Gallagher added: "It's difficult, because this is a lad who I'd say plays more advantage than anybody else normally. He lets it go and lets it go and takes a long time to bring it back and, sometimes, he's on the cusp.

"You see quite rightly he plays on and you can see why. The ball goes to Grealish and he's away and, for whatever reason, Simon puts his whistle to his mouth and blows it.

"We spoke a few weeks ago about referees being like players, the best players delay things a little bit. If he'd have waited one second the whole landscape changes but, unfortunately, he didn't. It's unfortunate, but it's just an error that he's made."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in