Monday 10 February 2014

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure will not face any FA action

                            Yaya Toure: Manchester City midfielder escapes sanction



Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure will not face any action from the FA following an incident in the Premier League game at Norwich on Saturday.

The Ivorian appeared to kick out at Canaries striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel during the goalless draw at Carrow Road, but referee Jonathan Moss took no action.

FA chiefs could still have charged Toure with violent conduct after the injury-time incident was reviewed by a three-man panel of former elite referees.

The panel has been set up to advise what action, if any, they believe the match referee should have taken had the incident been witnessed at the time.

However, for an FA charge to follow all three panel members must agree it is a sending-off offence and in this instance, the panel were not of the unanimous decision that it was an act of violent conduct.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, whose side face City in the FA Cup on Saturday, had earlier urged the FA to take action against Toure.

He said: "If the FA defends football, he has to be suspended."

When asked if he would be upset if the FA took no action, Mourinho replied: "Of course or it is the same for everybody else from now.

"Every player feels that if the referee doesn't see, I can do. It doesn't matter the cameras, it doesn't matter the consequences because if the referee doesn't see, I can do it."

Norwich manager Chris Hughton also felt the incident may have been worth a red card.

He said: "It did go unnoticed and there was no doubt there was a slight kick out.

"There was certainly something, but whether that was enough for a red card, then that is for the referee to decide on.

"It was a minimal incident in the game, and the bigger factor was it was a good team performance by us."

A three-match ban would have ruled Toure out of the Premier League games against Sunderland and Stoke as well as the FA Cup showdown with Chelsea.

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