Manchester United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, can consider himself very lucky indeed this evening.
A calamitous second half performance from the Red Devils at Anfield saw them go down to an era-defining 7-0 loss to their big rivals, Liverpool.
When the visitors needed their captain to stand up and be counted, they instead got a petulant and argumentative player who seemingly did nothing to motivate his team-mates or help drive the team forward in an attempt to get them back in the game.
His manhandling of one of the assistants hasn’t gone down well, and Ref Support CEO, Martin Cassidy, was one to condemn the actions of the Portuguese.
“Just like someone doing a Ronaldo celebration or a Cruyff turn, children will mimic what they see on TV. We’re talking about a world class official being pushed in the back here,” he was quoted as saying by Mirror.
“The onus is certainly on the FA. They have all the evidence in front of them to send a real strong message across all football that touching a match official in this way is totally unacceptable.
“Fernandes behaved like an entitled child.”
It wouldn’t have been a surprise if the player had been given a ban by the authorities, but as an updated Mirror report noted, the FA will not be taking any further action on this occasion.
This is believed to be principally because the refereeing team on the day saw that particular action and decided not to include it in their report.
On that basis the case to answer is moribund, though there surely has to be some sort of wider reaching review moving forward.
That sort of behaviour can’t be tolerated on a football pitch and it isn’t good enough either to have FA bureaucracy stopping the right punishments being metered out.