FA screw Halsey - Kiss up to Terry

An FA regulatory commission has thrown referee Mark Halsey to the wolves and has protected the England captain from a three-match ban after overturning the players red card against Manchester City.

John Terry was sent off for serious foul play when he brought down Manchester City front man Jo with around 15 minutes to go on Saturday evening. It looked a yellow in real time but Halsey jogged up and flashed the red card to Terry, who was sent off and was facing a ban that would keep him out of the Manchester United game at the weekend.

Due to the fact that he was sent off for serious foul play and not for a professional foul, the appeal looked doomed to failure. It is impossible to argue that it wasn't serious foul play and the referee in those instances has every right to send a player from the field of play.

For me it is one that looks worse every time you see it, so cynical and to be blunt it was a rugby style tackle that hauled down the Brazilian front man. The more I see it, the more I back referee Halsey in his judgement. However the powers that be have decided not to back him and have deemed him wrong in his actions.

As his reward Mark Halsey gets to referee Chester City v Shrewsbury Town this weekend. The FA have decided to protect their precious England captain instead of trying to stamp out cynical rugby style tackles.

Clearly Mark Halsey is expendable and not making John Terry out to be a bad guy is vastly more important. The FA sometimes are very self-serving and don't realise that by making this statement that kids up and down the country know that they can get away with rugby style tackles if someone is going clean past them.

You've got to love the FA's short-sightedness.

Respect?

How about respecting the men in black (or yellow as it was in this case) yourselves?