Manchester City striker Erling Haaland faces possible disciplinary action after complaining about referee.
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Following Sunday’s (3) Manchester City and Tottenham’s thrilling 3-3 draw, Haaland reposted a clip, now deleted, in his X account (previously known as Twitter) from the moment he suffers a foul, quickly got up and played Jack Grealish through on goal, but then referee Simon Hooper played back and awarded a free-kick. “Wtf”, he wrote alongside the video.
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At the moment in the game, City’s players protested, as they felt they had been denied a goal scoring chance when Hooper played back. Haaland led the protests, and had to be contained at the end of the game.
City’s manager Pep Guardiola spoke to reporters after the game, and said that Haaland’s reaction on the field was normal. “It’s normal. His reaction was the same for 10 players. The rules are you cannot talk with the referees or fourth officials, so we should have had 10 players sent off today”.
Guardiola also said that he would not “do a Mikel Arteta” by criticizing referees. Last month, Arsenal’s manager Mikel Arteta was charged by the Football Association after his criticism of the Premier League referees and VAR. After a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle, Arteta said that the decision to award Anthony Gordon’s winner was an “absolute disgrace” and “embarrassing”.
City’s manager just added that he didn’t understand the referee’s decision. “It surprised me because in the moment Erling went down (and) if you whistle in that moment it’s fine. But when he stands up and continues and the referee makes that gesture to play on, and after he (Haaland) makes the pass he then stops the game — I don’t want to criticize him. On the touchline sometimes I lose my mind and my gestures are not proper but for many years as a manager I’m not a guy, when I’m refreshed, to comment”.