Gary Neville says the FA 's decision not to take further action against linesman Constantine Hatzidakis is the "correct call," urging fans and authorities to "move on."
Hatzidakis sparked controversy after appearing to elbow Liverpool defender Andy Robertson during his side's dramatic 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Sunday. At the half-time interval, left-back Robertson walked over to the official to protest against his decisions in the first 45 minutes but was stunningly met with an elbow to his chin before being yellow carded for his angry reaction.
Video footage of the incident soon emerged and fans, pundits and former referees alike weighed in with their verdicts. The FA, however, have confirmed that Hatzidakis will face no further action and Manchester United legend Neville, who was at the game, agrees. "Correct call," the ex-United captain tweeted. "Move on."
Prior to Thursday's announcement, Hatzidakis had been suspended by the refereeing body PGMOL pending an investigation.
Now, though, he's free to return to officiating top-flight matches after an FA statement read: "We have thoroughly reviewed all of the evidence in relation to the recent incident at Anfield involving the Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson and match official Constantine Hatzidakis, and we will be taking no further action.
"Our comprehensive process involved reviewing detailed statements from Liverpool and the PGMOL, as well as multiple angles of video footage, in relation to both the incident and its surrounding circumstances."
Have your say! Should the linesman have been punished for elbowing Robertson? Let us know in the comments section.
Robertson also received an apology from Hatzidakis, who added: "I fully assisted The FA with their investigation and have discussed the matter directly with Andy Robertson during an open and positive conversation. It was certainly not my intention to make any contact with Andy as I pulled my arm away from him and for that I have apologised. I look forward to returning to officiating matches."
Ref Support UK exclusively told Mirror Football this week that rule changes must be implemented in order to protect officials. The charity believes that introducing harsher punishments, such as points deductions, would help solve the growing issue of abuse towards referees at all levels of the game.
"We've called for a two-metre rule," chief executive Martin Cassidy explained. "We had this coming out of Covid. It would have been very easy to say: 'If you come within two metres of a match official, uninvited, in an aggressive manner, you get a yellow card or get sent off'. There are no boundaries at the moment."
Cassidy then went on to claim: "Money punishment doesn't work at any level of football. They've been taking money as punishment for ages and I don't think it's good that anyone makes money out of abuse of referees. The individual that gets abused gets no benevolence whatsoever – it's the wrong approach.
"We need to start deducting points. So if someone is found guilty of abusing a referee, that person's team loses points. The deterrent will be there."
