Yet another Premier League player has been shown a red card after a VAR review for violent conduct following a hair-pulling incident and fans were not impressed
Sunderland star Dan Ballard has become the latest Premier League player to receive his marching orders for hair-pulling.
The defender was spotted tugging at the hair of Wolves’ Tolu Arokodare at Molineux on Saturday. Originally, Ballard remained on the field but was subsequently dismissed after referee Paul Tierney examined the incident on the VAR monitor.
A statement regarding the incident explained: “After VAR review, the referee issued a red card to Ballard for violent conduct.” The referee announcement was as follows: “After review, Sunderland 5 clearly pulls the hair of the Wolves player. Final decision is red card, violent conduct.”
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Despite the ruling favouring them, Wolves supporters, who have consistently voiced their displeasure about VAR, expressed their frustration once more, shouting “boring” and “it’s not football anymore”, reports the Mirror.
Ballard’s dismissal also represents the second occasion this season that a player has been red-carded for pulling Arokodare’s hair, following Michael Keane’s similar fate while playing for Everton back in January.
The subject of hair-pulling has emerged as an especially noteworthy discussion point. Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez was shown red for pulling the hair of Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
United manager Michael Carrick was left fuming by the decision. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “It’s not a pull, it’s not a tug, it’s not aggressive, he touches it and gets sent off. Worst of all is he was sent to overturn it as a clear and obvious error. It’s shocking.
“He’s off-balance because of that, he half touches the back of his hair which pulls the bobble out and leads it to look like – I don’t even know what it looks like.
“That’s two games in a row we’ve had those decisions go against us, but that one was one of the worst I’ve seen.”
An FA disciplinary panel reviewed the incident and stated that “in the wider interests of football ‘hair pulling’ ought not to be tolerated and should be discouraged through consistent punishment.” However, they did acknowledge that other forms of violent conduct “carry a much higher risk of harm to an opponent”.
Calvert-Lewin himself narrowly avoided being sent off recently, after he was spotted pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair during Leeds’ FA Cup semi-final clash with Chelsea. VAR reviewed the incident, but decided the striker’s actions did not warrant a dismissal.