Richard Keys has backed up Roy Keane’s comments that Andy Robertson behaved like a “big baby” and said he hopes linesman Constantine Hatzidakis escapes punishment for elbowing the Liverpool defender.
Robertson was caught by Hatzidakis during a confrontation at half-time of Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Sunday in the Premier League. The assistant referee has since been suspended from officiating duties while the FA investigates the incident.
The incident has sparked a wider debate about abuse of officials, while Robertson’s behaviour has also been questioned. Keane suggested that the Liverpool left-back had started things by approaching Hatzidakis and called him a “big baby” for reacting in the way he did.
BeIN SPORTS presenter Keys has now given his take on the incident. He believes that, while Hatzidakis was in the wrong, he shouldn’t be punished too harshly after the FA decided not to ban Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes for touching linesman Adam Nunn last month.
Keys wrote in his blog : “Maybe never know exactly what happened at half-time when Robertson and assistant Hatzidakis clashed. The pictures aren’t good for the lino, but I hope he escapes censure – just as Bruno Fernandes did on that very same ground.
“I said then that Fernandes should’ve been charged. The FA rightly threw the book at [Aleksandar] Mitrovic, but a week or two before that incident at OT they let Fernandes off after he laid hands on an assistant. See. These things come back to bite you.
“As Robertson approached Hatzikakis [sic] perhaps the assistant was concerned about his safety? He’d have every right to be.”
Keys pointed out that the FA has handed out over £1.3million of fines to clubs this season for failing to control their players. Manchester United are the worst offenders, with their total of £202,000 seeing them overtake Arsenal (£185,000) recently.
Keys added: “It’s got to stop. Robertson had no right to confront the assistant at half-time. I don’t agree with Roy Keane often, but he was right when he said Robertson behaved ‘like a baby’. Mind you – let’s not forget that Keane, [Gary] Neville and co invented ref abuse. Just ask Andy D’Urso.”
A charity which represents referees has called for huge changes to be made to the laws of the game in the wake of the Robertson incident and Fulham striker Mitrovic’s eight-match ban for grabbing referee Chris Kavanagh by the arm.
“We’ve called for a two-metre rule,” Martin Cassidy, chief executive of Ref Support UK, told Mirror Football. “We had this coming out of Covid. It would have been very easy to say: ‘If you come within two metres of a match official, uninvited, in an aggressive manner, you get a yellow card or get sent off.’ There are no boundaries at the moment.”
He added: “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.”
