The FA have proven themselves to be largely incompetent over a long period of time, but they’ve managed to step things up in recent weeks with the Edinson Cavani situation.
They’ve essentially refused to look at an incident of obvious violent conduct during a game yet he’s been given a ban for speaking in his own language to a friend, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they’ve given themselves some kind of anti-racism target to meet and they’ve decided to leap on an easy case rather than dealing with the actual problems.
That wasn’t the only ban that’s reached the headlines in recent weeks with Atletico Madrid defender Kieran Trippier getting a ten match ban for telling friends and family about a major life event.
READ MORE: The message exchange and £22 bet that led to Trippier’s ten-game ban
Obviously there might be a little bit more to it than that but if bookies will look to profit on pre-determined markets then they can’t act shocked when people with inside knowledge cash in.
Although that wouldn’t usually have a direct impact on United, it turns out they were looking to sign Trippier in the January window until this case came up:
Manchester United were set to make a January move for Kieran Trippier before he picked up a 10-week ban for betting offences, according to The Athletic ? pic.twitter.com/ZXekacDB37
— Goal (@goal) January 8, 2021
There’s a feeling that they could do with some genuine competition for Aaron Wan-Bissaka in that right back spot, while Trippier is much better going forward so it would give Solskjaer the option to change things up against weaker opponents.
Our colleagues at Football-Espana have reported that the ban has been temporarily suspended by FIFA pending an appeal, but there’s still no sign of when it will be heard or if it’s likely to be successful so it’s hard to see Man United pulling the trigger on a January transfer.