Earlier in February, during Tottenham Hotspur’s hosting of Leicester City at Wembley Stadium, although we took a semi-comfortable 3-1 victory with goals coming from Davinson Sanchez, Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-Min – one massive talking point post-game was the booking received by our South Korean international for an apparent dive.
The common consensus amongst most at the time was although it may have been on the softer side of penalty awards for some, it was a penalty as he clashed with Harry Maguire and it certainly wasn’t deserving of a yellow card for simulation – but yellow cards can’t be appealed and we simply had to swallow it.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino made quite a big point of it following the game, and he was quoted by the BBC as saying.
“I am more relaxed now because we won the game, but so disappointed with the situation because everyone wants to talk about different clubs or players, but do you think we are a team that is trying to cheat the referee? Come on, we are the most innocent people on the pitch. Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. I am a person that always accepts the mistake but I think it was so strange the situation today.”
The topic came up again and was given an additional airing last weekend with Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson telling the Soccer Saturday panel (16/2 – approx 1.27pm) that in his view, matchday referee Michael Oliver should send a letter of apology to the player, given his decision was such an obvious mistake.
“He didn’t dive, it was a penalty. I mean, the ref’s an absolute joke. The referee should write a letter to him and apologise to him. It’s a stone-cold penalty.”
Unfortunately, referees aren’t really accountable in the game but fans would hold them in higher esteem if they held their hands up and said sorry, even if it didn’t actually change anything once the 90 minutes was finished.