A refereeing charity has called for tougher punishments in the wake of Sunday's incident between Andrew Robertson and an assistant referee during Liverpool vs Arsenal.
Constantine Hatzidakis appeared to elbow Reds full-back Robertson half-time of the Gunners' 2-2 draw at Anfield when the Scottish international approached him on the pitch. The incident is now being investigated by the Football Association and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the body who oversees officiating in the top flight.
Having come only one week after Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic was handed an eight-game ban for pushing Chris Kavanagh during his side's FA Cup game with Manchester United, how players and officials behave is now coming under the microscope. United's Bruno Fernandes, meanwhile, recently came under fire for an incident with an assistant referee during a game against Liverpool where he appeared to make an attempt to shove Adam Nunn.
Martin Cassidy, the chief executive of Ref Support UK, spoke to the Mirror about a trend he thinks is developing. "The official appears to have been out of order," Cassidy said.
"And if it was intentional and it was aggressive then he needs to be banned like any other player - not for more, but the same (length of time). The learnings here are: what was a player doing going over and manhandling a match official yet again?"
Cassidy also thinks points deductions would be an appropriate sanction to stop officials being abused. "Money punishment doesn’t work at any level of football," Cassidy added.
"It's the wrong approach. We need to start deducting points, so if someone is found guilty of abusing a referee that person's team loses points. The deterrent will be there."
In a statement released on Monday, the PGMOL said: "PGMOL will not be appointing Constantine Hatzidakis to fixtures in any of the competition it serves while The FA investigates the incident involving the assistant referee and Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson at Anfield."
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