Diego Costa has somehow escaped punishment for kicking Martin Skrtel during Chelsea’s match against Liverpool last weekend.
The striker appeared to lash out at Skrtel after clashing with the Liverpool defender during Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, with him kicking Skrtel’s chest as the pair fell to the ground after they both challenged for the ball. Referee Mark Clattenburg deemed that no offence had taken place despite Liverpool’s protests, though it looked likely that the FA would stage an internal investigation, which could have potentially led to Costa receiving a four-game ban.
However, the FA have ruled that as Clattenburg witnessed the incident and made the ruling on the pitch, they will not watch video footage of it in order to determine whether Costa should face retroactive punishment, despite said footage existing and depicting Costa ramming his heel into the stomach of the defender.
While the footage is decidedly more subtle than some of Costa’s other, more violent encounters on the pitch, it certainly looks as though Costa’s movement was intentional even though he does apologise to Skrtel moments after kicking out at him.
With that being said, it seems entirely unreasonable that the FA has decided that they will not even assess the footage available to them, and serves as yet another reminder that even though we now have goal-line technology, the football world still has a long way to go when it comes to its officiating. This marks the third time this year that Costa’s behaviour has come under fire and has demanded a response from the FA, with it therefore being even more absurd that they decided to overlook this incident given the Brazilian-born striker’s reputation.
