Joelinton was in the thick of it in Tottenham v Newcastle. (Credit: MOTD and Imago)

Joelinton 'reckless', sanction called for after Tottenham v Newcastle incident

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

Published on:

05 Jan 2025, 5:18 am

Joelinton should have been booked for deliberately using his arm on Tottenham star Lucas Bergvall, according to Keith Hackett.

Newcastle's Brazilian midfielder was in the thick of the controversy on Saturday (4 January).

Anthony Gordon's early equaliser came as a result of the ball hitting Joeltinton's arm in the build-up before, minutes later, the Magpies man left Bergvall on the deck after a tussle with Bergvall.

Former Premier League and FIFA referee Hackett doesn't think the incident merited a red card, which is why it wasn't subjected to a VAR review.

However, the ex-PGMOL general manager does think referee Andy Madley should have booked him.

"Joelinton was lucky to escape sanction for the deliberate use of his arm on an opponent," Hackett told Tottenham News.

"His actions were reckless and should have resulted in the sanction of a yellow card.

"That is why I suspect no review by VAR."

Postecoglou rages amid Joelinton controversy v Tottenham

Ange Postecoglou's job is very much under threat at Tottenham, so he's no doubt going to have a shorter fuse when it comes to incidents like what happened against Newcastle.

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou [Credit: Imago]

He can definitely feel hard-done-by but Joelinton's arm was in a fairly natural position before Gordon's goal cancelled out Dominic Solanke's opener.

But there was definitely a slight case for a red card for that arm into Bergvall's head.

Unfortunately for Postecoglou, that's a subjective decision and was definitely not clear-cut.

You can see why he was so furious after the game on Saturday but that's just football sometimes and Spurs aren't the only team who bear the brunt of these kinds of decisions.

In other Tottenham news, Gary Lineker has mocked Postecoglou after what happened on Match of the Day after the Newcastle game.

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Keith Hackett