Fernando Torres Incident Shows Up Bungling FA's Disciplinary Procedures

Where every step forward represents an opportunity for a fall flat on the FA's collective faces. Only the most one-eyed of Chelsea fans will fail to concede Fernando Torres got lucky when he avoided any further punishment for what he did at White Hart Lane on Saturday .

When the referee (Mike Dean) reported he missed the incident altogether and the assistant (Jake Collin) confirmed he saw only a raised hand but not the actual action, you would have thought due punishment was likely.

The fact that Chelsea officials were ready to accept a three-game ban but were preparing to fight any attempt by the FA to argue such a punishment was insufficient tells its own story.
But let's start from the beginning.

It is not about Torres scratching Jan Vertonghen .
Nor it is about Callum McManaman potentially crippling Massadio Heidara .

Or Sergio Aguero stamping on David Luiz, Mario Balotelli knee-capping Alex Song, Benoit Assou-Ekotto against Wigan, Rio Ferdinand clipping Torres behind the referee's back or all the other acts of thuggery which have gone unpunished in recent seasons.

Some 18 months ago, in the wake of a series of incidents, I demanded the FA start getting tough, start to use video evidence to punish acts of violence.

Not the handball that wasn't penalised, the dives - though I wish they'd clamp down properly on them as well - but the vicious, unacceptable, leg-breakers, the deliberate elbows, the sort of stuff that any decent parent would send his child to bed for.

''But we can't do it,'' I was told. ''FIFA won't let us.''

So I contacted FIFA. Asked them. Got an official email back confirming that, indeed, the FA had the right to act retrospectively, upgrade punishments, even in incidents where a yellow card was brandished.

''Okay, so we can do it,'' I was told. ''But show me anywhere else they do it.''
So I did. France. Germany. Major League Soccer.

''There is your evidence,'' I was able to say. 'Do something about it.''

And I waited. And then last summer was told that the FA had suggested to the Professional Game Board, made up of the Premier League, PFA, League Managers Association, Football League and the referees, that they did introduce my idea. But that it was felt it wouldn't be a good thing. That the regulations should stay.

''This is going to bite you on the backside,'' I predicted. ''You are going to look very stupid and have to change.''

The FA argued otherwise. Their call. And then McManaman nearly broke Haidara's leg in two, Mark Halsey and his officials somehow failed to notice it. And the world went mad.

This time, changes were promised. I hoped, devoutly, that sense would be seen. That, in future, justice would be done.

I must be more of an idiot than I look (which is a pretty big claim to make).

 

"The FA argued otherwise. Their call. And then McManaman nearly broke Haidara's leg in two...

 

And in the summer, the FA came back with their new process . From now on, if a referee and his assistants missed a McManaman-type incident, knew something had happened but missed the severity and significance, there could be video trial on the basis that ''exceptional circumstances'' required action.

In addition, where something was missed completely by the referee and his colleagues, and they conceded that they had missed it, then it could be passed over to the new panel of three former referees to pass judgement and sentence. Only, of course, for incidents of violent conduct.

It was, as I said, a step on the path. But nowhere near the entire journey. Better. But not enough, by any means.

And then we come to White Hart Lane. Chelsea fans have convinced themselves Torres did not trip Vertonghen. That is by the by.

It IS what he was booked for (as it happens, for what it's worth, I think it's pretty clear he either tripped or attempted to trip him, both of which are cautionable offences).

What followed, though, was unacceptable. Torres should have been dismissed for it.

Had he been, had Dean or Collin done their job properly, the subsequent argument, over whether Torres deserved his second yellow card - he did not, Vertonghen blatantly play-acted – would have been rendered redundant. He would not have been on the pitch at that stage to jump towards the Spurs defender.

But with Collin reporting he saw something but not what actually happened, Torres walks away. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Good luck to him.

 

Torres is shown the red card against Spurs

 

Nobody at the FA pretends they are happy with the outcome. Indeed, officials at Wembley insist they wanted a tougher disciplinary framework but feel they have been hamstrung by the decisions of the PGB.

But it was only the other week that Greg Dyke spoke about the ''law of unintended consequences''. Not demanding the other stakeholders fall into line with them, not leading, is a failure of governance by the FA.

This week, it was Torres who got away with it. Soon, doubtless, it will be someone else. Indeed, the Chelsea fans who were claiming any sanction would be proof of a Football Association vendetta against the club may be the ones demanding the saw people take action for an offence in which their player is the victim.

I don't care about the players. I do care about the game. And the longer acts of violence can be perpetrated without due punishment, the more the FA's claims of being the guardians of the game, about wanting role models, will be embarrassingly hollow.

It is time for some people at the FA to show they mean it.

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