Mikel Arteta is set to avoid a ban for his comments on officials after Arsenal’s match against Newcastle United at the weekend.
Tuesday’s print edition of The Daily Telegraph reports that the FA have been considering Mikel Arteta’s comments at the weekend, and whilst no definite decision had yet been reached last night, it appears the manager is set to avoid a ban.
Arteta’s comments reportedly do not appear to have clearly breached the rules on questioning the integrity of officials, nor on making an excessively personalised attack.
Arsenal have stressed to Professional Game Match Officials Ltd that their statement was in response to a series of errors, not just those in the Newcastle United match.
Arsenal lost 1-0 to Newcastle at St. James’ Park on Saturday, but the game turned on a couple of major VAR calls.
The first was when Bruno Guimaraes hit Jorginho in the head and escaped punishment, whilst the second was when Newcastle’s goal was allowed to stand despite multiple potential reasons to overturn it.
Arteta was clearly not pleased after the game, saying: “We have to talk about the result because you have to talk about how they help these goals stand up, and it’s incredible. I feel embarrassed.
“But I have to be the one now coming here to try to defend the club and please ask for help because it’s an absolute disgrace that this goal is allowed, it’s an absolute disgrace.
Because it’s not a goal, for many reasons it’s not a goal, for more than one reason at least it’s not a goal. And there’s too much at stake here, we put in so much effort, and it’s so difficult to compete at this level. And it’s an absolute disgrace.
“Again, I feel embarrassed, I’ve been more than 20 years in this country, and this is nowhere near the level to describe this as the best league in the world. I am sorry.”
The comments clearly display Arteta’s anger at the situation, but it’s hard to point to anything that questions the integrity of the officials, and the manager clearly doesn’t go after any specific official.
Arteta isn’t specifically blaming the referee, or one of the assistants, or the VAR team. It’s the whole process that led to a goal being awarded that’s the problem.
Given that context, it’s not too surprising Arteta is seemingly avoiding a ban. If you got banned simply for complaining about a call against your team, most managers would be out of action most weeks.