Aston Villa and Wigan baffled by lack of trial by TV

By Charles Sale for the Daily Mail
Updated: 18:18 EST, 2 February 2012

Aston Villa and Wigan are upset about the FA’s failure to take retrospective action over violent challenges missed by referees.

Arsenal’s Robin van Persie escaped punishment for an elbow on Villa’s Carlos Cuellar last Sunday, and Tottenham’s Benoit Assou-Ekotto was let off despite going over the top on Wigan’s Franco di Santo on Tuesday.

The FA rejected bringing disciplinary charges in both cases because TV pictures showed the incidents were in the line of vision of respective referees Mike Jones and Lee Probert, even though they didn’t see enough to hand out red or yellow cards.

Match-winner: Robin van Persie hit two as Arsenal beat Villa 3-2

Jones even told Villa staff after the match he had missed the Van Persie elbow and would look at the TV footage, and Spurs assistant Kevin Bond said yesterday Assou-Ekotto had made a ‘poor challenge’ and was lucky to escape being sent off.

The FA say all their stakeholders have signed up to retrospective action being taken only when a whole incident has been missed, not when a referee has a partial view.

The life of Riley

Radio 5 Live sending reporter George Riley to Melbourne predominantly to read sports bulletins during the Australian Open tennis hasn’t gone down well with members of the BBC sports department, when the Corporation are looking to lose five commentators from their 13-strong football division. Only Peter Slater, who is not a regular match caller, accepted voluntary redundancy terms ahead of last month’s deadline.

Random act

The absence of skipper John Terry from the quartet of England players in an FA advert promoting ticket sales for the friendly against Holland on February 29 is conspicuous in light of doubts about him continuing as captain. But the FA say the choice of Joe Hart, Theo Walcott, Stewart Downing and Phil Jagielka was random and that all the squad take part in such activities.

Beasley book

Former News of the World football reporter Rob Beasley is intending to write a book about his experiences at the defunct newspaper, with the Harry Redknapp tax-evasion case playing a central part. Beasley was a witness for the prosecution and Redknapp told the court on Thursday he had lied to the journalist to get him off the phone when he told Beasley that the money in his Monaco bank account was the bonus he had received from the Peter Crouch transfer from Portsmouth to Aston Villa.

Scots’ missing invites

The ongoing tensions around the Team GB football team at London 2012 include the  FA and their Scottish counterparts not even agreeing on how many players from north of the border were selected for the 191-strong long list drawn from all four home nations.

The FA say they sent official invitations to seven Scottish players aged under 23 and 17 over-age contenders. But the Scottish FA say they have no knowledge of any under 23s being on the list.

What isn’t in dispute is the lack of interest  in the five sessions of Olympic football at  Scotland’s Hampden Park, where the uptake  is 10 per cent or less for the 50,000 capacity  stadium. Games organisers LOCOG believe  the draw on April 24 will spark sales — even in Glasgow.

Deserted dreams

The financial nightmare for British investors in the Dubai Sports City complex around the International Cricket Stadium —where England started the third Test against Pakistan — explains the upset at the match taking place there. Estimates suggest there are as many as 5,000 UK and Irish citizens who have put down five- and six-figure deposits on 200 mothballed building projects, with little hope of seeing their money again.

Premier League in unison with FA

Premier League clubs showed rare empathy with the FA when they agreed to stage all the penultimate round of matches next season on a Sunday — to avoid a clash with the FA Cup final. Also, games scheduled for May 5 this year  — FA Cup final day — will be moved unless Sky demand a contracted midday Saturday kick-off, or any club are involved in the Europa League final the following Wednesday.