Manchester United failed in an appeal to overturn Lisandro Martinez’s three-match suspension for hair pulling, the Football Association have confirmed.
The 28-year-old was sent off during the second half of their 2-1 defeat to Leeds United at Old Trafford last Monday after tugging on Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair in an aerial challenge.
Referee Paul Tierney was sent to review the incident on the pitchside monitor by video assistant referee John Brooks and subsequently showed Martinez a straight red card.
The Premier League Match Centre clarified the incident had been considered an act of “violent conduct”.
Michael Carrick, Manchester United’s head coach, described the decision as “shocking” and “one of the worst I’ve seen”, but stopped short of confirming whether the club would appeal the decision.
The FA confirmed United’s appeal on Friday, publishing written reasons as to why the three-match suspension has been upheld.
United challenged Martinez’s sending off on the grounds that it constituted wrongful dismissal and the punishment of a three-match ban was clearly excessive.
In a letter to the independent regulatory commission hearing the appeal, United also submitted video evidence of Calvert-Lewin’s challenge on their defender Leny Yoro prior to Leeds’ first goal, and of an alleged hair-pulling incident between Fulham’s Kenny Tete and Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo in February which went unpunished.
At the start of the season, the Premier League and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMO), the organising body for referees in English football, published guidance that players not challenging for the ball will be sent off if they “make a clear action to pull the hair of an opponent or any other person with force”.
The written reasons, published by the FA, say the commission “did not feel that it could be said with any confidence that the force exerted… was negligible”.
The commission unanimously agreed that Tierney’s interpretation of the incident as violent conduct was reasonable and the referee had not made an “obvious error” in dismissing Martinez.
The commission also agreed that as incidents of hair pulling are not uncommon, it could not be categorised as “truly exceptional” and Martinez’s punishment was therefore not “clearly excessive” in the circumstances.
The Argentina international served the first instalment of his three-match suspension in United’s 1-0 win at Chelsea last weekend, with fellow centre-back Harry Maguire also unavailable after an extended ban for misconduct following his sending off in the 2-2 draw at Bournemouth in March.
Martinez will also be unavailable for the visit of Brentford to Old Trafford on Monday night and United’s meeting with Liverpool on May 3.
