The Football Association will study referee Craig Pawson’s report before determining whether to take punitive action against Leicester City following their eventful 2-2 draw at Stoke City.
The main flashpoint of Saturday’s English Premier League game saw Leicester striker Jamie Vardy dismissed in the 28th minute by Pawson for a two-footed challenge on Stoke forward Mame Biram Diouf.
Pawson was criticized for not dismissing Manchester United’s Marcos Rojo for a similar foul against Crystal Palace last week and he was confronted by Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri at halftime.
Photo: Reuters
“I don’t know. I don’t want to speak about this. Every match is different,” Ranieri said when asked about Pawson’s performance in the wake of his failure to dismiss Rojo. “Every decision could be different. We must respect the referee every time.”
In the final seven minutes of the half, Stoke scored twice and Pawson booked five Leicester players.
It prompted stormy scenes at halftime, when Ranieri and his players confronted the official, who, in turn, appeared to have objects thrown at him by visiting supporters as he left the field.
Asked what he had said to Pawson, the usually mild-mannered Ranieri replied: “I said nothing to him at halftime. I just wanted to show to our fans, to my players, that I was there. There was nothing wrong.I just said to our fans: ‘Keep going, stay with us, we need your support.’”
For their total of six bookings, in addition to Vardy’s red card, Leicester can expect an automatic fine, triggered when a team collects six or more cautions, but Pawson’s report will be studied closely by the authorities this week before they decide whether further action is warranted.
Ranieri was pulled away from a growing melee around Pawson at halftime by his goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, and then appeared to point provocatively at the official as he left the field.
However, he insisted that there was no sinister intent.
“No, I was pointing to the pitch,” said Ranieri, whose side slipped to 15th place. “I was saying: ‘Come on, it’s important, support us on the pitch.’”
Ranieri also professed ignorance of objects being thrown at Pawson by his team’s supporters.
“I didn’t see them,” the Italian said. “Of course, I would be disappointed [if they had].”
Former elite referee Howard Webb added to the controversy by saying that, following the Rojo incident, Pawson should not be allowed to officiate the forthcoming Liverpool versus Manchester City clash.
“He’s been given, on New Year’s Eve, Liverpool against Manchester City. I don’t think he should be on that game, no, not after the performance he gave on Wednesday night,” said Webb, commenting on television. “We’re accountable, we make mistakes, we affect the results of games and we pay the price.”
Stoke took a 2-0 lead into halftime courtesy of Bojan Krkic’s 39th-minute penalty and a stoppage-time tap-in by Joe Allen, but Leicester substitutes Demarai Gray and Leonardo Ulloa combined to reduce the arrears with 16 minutes remaining, before Christian Fuchs set up Daniel Amartey to head in an 88th-minute equalizer.
Concerning Vardy’s sending off, Ranieri pleaded his player’s case and claimed that a challenge with Glen Johnson, immediately prior to his foul on Diouf, was a contributory factor.
It was a version of events with which Stoke manager Mark Hughes found little grounds for agreement.
“People are trying to say he [Vardy] was pushed and that was the reason he jumped in two feet off the ground,” Hughes said. “I’ve seen the incident and it looked to me like he had two straight legs, he was off the ground and out of control. I can understand, there have been a couple of incidents where players have done similar and got away with a yellow card. They were deemed to be wrong, so this time the referee got it right.”
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots last night lost their East Asia Super League (EASL) championship game against Japan’s Hiroshima Dragonflies 72-68. They on Friday secured Taiwan’s first-ever spot in an EASL final with a 71-64 comeback victory over Japan’s Ryukyu Golden Kings. In what the EASL official Web site described as an “upset,” Pilots forward Lu Chun-hsiang on Friday asserted his stardom in Macau by scoring a game-high 24 points, with four players in both teams reaching double figures. The win was also the first time a Taiwanese franchise has defeated a Japanese team in the EASL Final Four. “I was moved
RSS