Both Everton legend Andy Gray and Keith Hackett, the former head of referees in England, have hit out at what they believe are flaws in the system that have failed to see Edinson Cavani punished for grabbing Yerry Mina by the throat and throwing him to the floor.
On Monday it was reported that the Manchester United striker, who netted the opening goal in his side’s 2-0 victory over the Blues in their Carabao Cup quarter-final at Goodison Park on December 23 will face no retrospective suspension.
It is understood that referee Andy Madley said in his match report that he saw the incident with Mina at the time and did not feel it warranted further action, which removed any threat of fresh disciplinary measures.
Gray, who lifted the League Championship, European Cup-Winners’ Cup and FA Cup with Everton admitted that his old side were second best on the night to United but he was left upset by both Cavani’s actions and the failure to send him off.
Speaking on the Keys & Gray podcast, he said: “The only thing I would take exception to is that I don’t think Cavani should have been on the pitch to score the opening goal.
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“He absolutely shouldn’t. I’m not having that just because VAR wasn’t there it was missed.
“I watched the footage and I watched the game and the referee was looking straight at the incident.
“The fact that somebody said he never saw it is rubbish.
“I’m a bit surprised at Ole when he comes out with the excuses that ‘well it was two South Americans who have come up against each other in spiky games before, it was nothing.’”
Mina is a Colombian international while Cavani plays for Uruguay and Richard Keys interjected: “So when Argentina play Brazil or whatever, people can go around and chin opponents can they?”
Gray replied: “So when Scotland players go up against English players in the Premier League they can go around chinning each other? No you can’t.
“If he’d have just said, ‘we might have got away with one there’, that would be the right thing to say but to just dismiss it was wrong.
“You can’t grab someone around the throat, throw them to the ground and expect to stay on the football pitch.
“So they were fortunate in that respect but it would be sour grapes for me to sit here and say that was the reason United won, they won because they were the better side on the night.”
Meanwhile, Keith Hackett, who was a Premier League and FIFA listed referee before being appointed the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, slammed the process that has seen Cavani escape punishment.
Writing on Linkedin, he said: “So Manchester United Edinson Cavani will not face any retrospective action after he grabbed the throat of Everton's Yerry Mina. This is because referee Andy Madley said that he had seen the incident.
“What absolute nonsense then that the referee did not issue Cavani with a red card. The review procedure should ignore the referee on the day. Cavani should have been suspended.
“The process is flawed when a player is not punished for this type of offence, Madley requires some operational advice.”
