An independent commission has ruled that the controversial elbowing of West Ham’s Winston Reid by the Manchester City striker Sergio Agüero in a Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium last month was a “brutal” incident that “clearly endangered the safety” of the Hammers player.
Agüero earned a three-game ban for the action, which happened in the 28 August meeting between the two clubs. He missed last weekend’s Manchester derby and will also not be available for this month’s domestic games against Bournemouth and Swansea. The incident was not seen at the time of the incident by the referee, Andre Marriner, or other match officials, but caught on video.
In written reasons published by the Football Association on Wednesday, the three-man commission, chaired by Stuart Ripley, agreed that Agüero had “thrown out his left arm in an aggressive manner that was excessive in force and brutal, which clearly endangered the safety of Mr Reid.”
The commission also noted “the clenched fist of Mr Agüero as he threw his left elbow towards Mr Reid, the upward angle of the movement and the force of the movement”.
In an email to the commission, Marriner stated he “did not see the full extent of the incident and in particular where Sergio Agüero’s hand had finished up in the challenge, which clearly catches Winston Reid in the throat region”.
Manchester City appealed against the ban but the commission were unanimous in their decision that the video evidence was conclusive.
“The commission could not see anything ‘truly exceptional’ about the incident,” said Ripley. “The incident was simply a ‘one v one’ tussle for the ball, such that is seen many times during any football match, whereby one of the players had used excessive force and brutality against the other.”
