Bristol City are preparing to send footage back to the Football Association to highlight their inconsistencies following the decision to ban Mark Sykes for four games.
Nigel Pearson was highly critical of the FA after the City winger was handed a suspension following an incident that occurred towards the end of the 2-0 defeat at Swansea before the international break. Sykes was found guilty of violent conduct after kicking out at Ryan Manning after a cynical foul by Joel Piroe.
The incident was missed at the time but the FA delivered their verdict after reviewing the footage. Sykes contested the charge, but an independent regulatory commission upheld the suspension.
While the City manager could understand the charge after watching the footage, albeit harsh, it's the inconsistencies that he continues to find baffling having labelled the FA "pathetic" and "disgraceful".
Pearson cited other examples of incidences that occurred to Robins players over the season that escaped any punishment. Joe Williams was kicked out at during an away game against Wigan toward the beginning of the season which only merited a yellow card.
More recently, Matty James was involved in a "leg-breaking" challenge by Matty Pearson at Huddersfield which ultimately led to the midfielder being sidelined for the last three league matches with an ankle injury.
"Massive (frustration). You can probably tell I'm very annoyed about it just because of how it came about and the inconsistencies again," Pearson said in his pre-match press conference.
"We're preparing footage that we'll be sending back to the authorities. They're so inconsistent.
"We've had players and the reports have been sent back to us, and we'll send them back to them by the way. Just to highlight how poor the consistency is, we've had players like Joe Williams when we played Wigan away, he was kicked out at and that was just turned down by them on the day. Pathetic.
"We've had Joe Williams receive a really bad challenge against Sheffield United. Likewise Matty James at Huddersfield. They're leg-breakers, those challengers are leg-breakers. It's beyond me.
"They get three referees who are no longer refereeing to look at it who make the decision. I'm not necessarily arguing about that, although there's not a lot in it. Even when I looked at it, I thought 'Yeah, OK, what about the cynical challenge on him?'
"It all points to the fact that they continue to frustrate everybody in the professional game, by mixing up their reasons and continuing to send very confusing mixed messages back out to the professional game. And I think it's quite frankly disgraceful."
Pearson has been vocal in his criticism of the FA throughout the course of the season. In August, after Sykes was sent off in a 2-0 victory over Luton, the City manager threatened to quit over the standard of officiating.
Luke Freeman would react to the tackle by barging him over, receiving a yellow card for his troubles. "In the modern game, I’ve got no complaints about Sykesy but what I do have a complaint about is the way their player wasn’t dealt with in the same way," he told Sky Sports after the game.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I thought about it last year, and I’ve thought about it again this year and that is basically to pack up being involved in the sport.
“And that is not because how shallow the modern game is and how some of the aspects of the modern game irritate me but the standard of officiating, as far as I’m concerned, is at an all-time low.”
Following the challenge on James against the Terriers, City submitted a report to MOAS (Match Official Administration System) regarding the performance of referee Leigh Doughty. Pearson said earlier this month: "It was a shocking challenge.
“We joke about it, or make jokes at MOAS’ expense that we could wallpaper the office with all the excuses and poor reports that we get back. The one we got from the other night was embarrassing, to be honest with you. Not just Matty, some of our other players took heavy challenges.”
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