A former Premier League referee has questioned the logic behind Jurgen Klopp's recent touchline ban - insisting such a decision would have acted as an advantage rather than a hindrance for the Liverpool manager.
Klopp was made to observe Saturday's 3-1 home victory over Southampton from a new vantage point after admitting to breaching FA rule E3 during the victory over Manchester City last month, where his dismay at the linesman's judgment not to award Mohamed Salah a free kick after an altercation with Bernardo Silva led to the Reds boss screaming in the official's face.
Referee Anthony Taylor immediately signalled for a halt in play and brandished a red card for Klopp, his first during his seven years in England, with an independent regulatory commission later handing the German a £30,000 fine for his actions.
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But last week the Football Association successfully contested the punishment, which saw an independent appeal board upgrade the sanctions on Klopp to include an immediate one-match touchline ban. He was therefore limited to the directors' box for the win over Nathan Jones' Saints side. However, was able to communicate instructions to coaches Pep Lijnders and Vitor Matos, who were positioned in the dugout as usual.
However, former Premier League referee Keith Hackett has blasted the FA for the punishment, insisting that managers who receive a touchline ban should be chaperoned straight up to the directors' box as soon as they arrive at the stadium and not handed the luxury of being to take part in their teams warm-up or pre-match team-talk, as Klopp did on Saturday.
"What a waste of time the procedure laid down for a touchline ban by the FA is,” Hackett, who served as a professional referee for over 20 years, told Football Insider. "First of all, I want to praise the FA for appealing the process.
“So he gets a one-match ban but in reality, this guy is still allowed to do his job. It’s not a ban, is it? If you’re a player, you can’t play if you get a ban.
“What is he doing? He’s sat next to the technical guy and is in contact with the technical area. He’s managing the game and probably has a better view than being stood at the side of the pitch.
“One of the things I learned from Sam Allardyce when he was at Bolton Wanderers he used to spend a good part of the first half sat in the directors' box with a couple of screens in front of him, one with a seven-second delay. Maybe this is the future for Mr Klopp in the first half?"
Hackett added: “For me, I think the FA should come into line with Uefa and operate the same process. The manager can come to the ground on the team bus, fine. But on the point of entry to the ground he goes up to the director’s box, nowhere near technical staff.
“He should be sat in the director’s box alongside the Premier League match delegate and he’s not allowed to communicate with his team and technical staff.
“I’m not just saying that because it’s Jurgen Klopp and I’m not having a dig at him. I’m having a dig at the FA and the ban because it doesn’t mean anything.”
Speaking after the victory over the Saints, Klopp insisted that he was not a fan of the vantage point but revealed that he had no problem communicating with those standing in for him in Liverpool's dugout.
"It’s the first game I watched from there - not because I got a ban,” he told reporters on Saturday evening. “I watched a lot of games from the stands and I can say the perspective is much better but it’s still not my favourite place.
“It was clear that would not be our problem today - it was not too cool that we only got the information yesterday. I expected that after the FA appeal but when it is Friday afternoon and you have training already done and someone gets in and tells you, ‘by the way, tomorrow…’.
“We had to organise a little bit but that was fine - Pep [Lijnders], Pete [Krawietz] and Vitor [Matos] are experienced coaches and can do that.
“We were in contact, which didn’t work perfectly all the time, but I think that is probably normal. In the end, we got all the messages across.
“You can see distances better, you can have a much better overview. It was not the first game I saw like this but I know the people from this stand really have a good perspective.
“I saw what we did well and what we didn’t do that well and still couldn’t change it in the second half. The second half was Alisson Becker’s half, let me say it like this.”
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