The Football Association in their wisdom have decided to fine Dr Tony Xia following the tweet he sent about referee Jeremy Simpson following Aston Villa’s victory over Bolton Wanderers last month.
Many will remember the game, Simpson was an utter buffoon with his display drawing criticism from both Villa and Bolton fans based on his overreaction to some tackles and then his marked ‘get on with it’ attitude to far more dangerous challenges in the match.
Of course our game saw four yellow cards and one red, but somehow in eleven games he’s shown 43 yellows and two reds so far. Card happy referees from the past would be proud!
Anyway, with nothing more important to do in the game, the FA in their usual set of wisdom decide to look at comments as opposed to performances, and Xia was given a misconduct charge for the tweet that questioned.
‘Is the ref a AV hater’.
Xia, presumably for an easy life, admitted the charge and he’s been fined £4000 and ‘warned about his future conduct’ as the rule was typically E3(1).
‘…questioned the integrity of the match official and/or alleged and/or implied bias on the part of the match official, and/or brought the game into disrepute, contrary to FA Rule E3(1).’
Maybe the FA should start looking at the ‘integrity’ of referees instead of making easy additional money off those who ‘question’ them?
Or maybe they should focus on their own organisation first – as those improvements still rumble on don’t they…
Vital Villa on:
Join Vital Villa
It’s easy to REGISTER, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved!
