Tottenham points deduction called for after FA violation
Keith Hackett believes Tottenham and Aston Villa should face points deductions after the FA fined them both following their FA Cup incident.
It was announced by The FA on Thursday that both Tottenham and Aston Villa would be fined £125,000 each for the mass confrontation which happened in their FA Cup game on 10 January.
The FA’s statement writes that it was alleged both sides failed to ensure their players and/or officials didn’t act in improper and/or in a provocative manner after the full-time whistle had blew.
Tottenham and Aston Villa have since admitted to the charge brought against them, with the Regulatory Commission imposing the aforementioned fine on them as such.
Keith Hackett calls for points deductions after Spurs/Villa scenes
Aston Villa beat Tottenham 2-1, and the incident started when Joao Palhinha didn’t take too kindly to Ollie Watkins’ celebrations in front of the travelling Villa fans.
Some pushing and shoving by Palhinha on Watkins followed, which was spotted by a number of Villa players who began to confront the Tottenham midfielder, notably Morgan Rogers.
Eventually the situation did cool down and things came under control, but the damage had been done in regards to disciplinary action being taken against both clubs.
However, speaking exclusively to Tottenham News, former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett believes that much harsher punishments should’ve been enacted, with a points deduction recommended.
“The fines hopefully sends a message to both clubs. However, a bigger message would be to start deducting points,” Hackett said.
Points deductions might be over the top – larger fines wouldn’t be
The problem with deducting points in this incident is that it took place in the FA Cup, which would then be pretty unfair to punish both Tottenham and Aston Villa in terms of Premier League points.
Perhaps the issue as well as the solution in this scenario, and indeed others like it, is not that a fine wasn’t an acceptable course of disciplinary action, but that it wasn’t high enough to really feel like a punishment.
£125,000, whilst certainly not a sum of money one might find on the floor in the street, isn’t exactly a figure that would strike fear into the hearts of Spurs or Villa’s financial coffers, respectfully.
However, if fines were bumped up from six figures to seven for incidents such as this one, then clubs may take a more serious and proactive approach to ensuring they don’t happen.
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