Thursday 9 March 2017

Mings' ban is a big blow but not unexpected

I have watched and re-watched the alleged 'stamp' by Tyrone Mings on Zlatan Ibrahimovic numerous times and while I'd like to believe it was unintentional, as many have commented, there is no way anyone but Tyrone Mings can say if he wanted to avoid the collision with Zlatan. For the FA Regulatory Committee though there can't be any unclear signals given out. A player who intends or doesn't intend to injury, but does land a blow on another player is going to find themselves in retrospective proceedings if the match officials don't see it. 
Tyrone will get through this. 
I am not so surprised by the outcome of a five-match ban. A player could have been seriously injured, and head injuries can be life threatening, and that is why I believe the FA made a stand, which is unfortunate for Tyrone. Tyrone Mings has explained that he did not want to injure Zlatan and as an AFCB fan I'd like to accept his view, and I am glad that the club has fully supported their player, but I don't think anyone condones any intended violence - there is a line. There is certainly no place for violent conduct on a football pitch and if the panel decided that the charge should be higher than a three-match ban for violent conduct, there was only one way that the ban was going.

AFCB have been unable to reduce any of the match bans that Simon Francis was handed out in recent seasons and they have not managed to ease Tyrone's ban this time. AFCB certainly don't get any favours and while they see this decision as 'extremely disappointing', there will have been an expectation that Tyrone was likely to get a lengthy ban after the comments coming out of the FA on Monday, when the charges were announced. The safety of any player entering the pitch has to remain paramount.

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My only hope is that Tyrone is not vilified throughout his playing career for this one incident. The player has said it was an accident and if that is good enough for Zlatan Ibrahimovic it should be enough for fans. Zlatan himself has a three match ban and I bet that both players wish that the whole episode is moved on from quickly. At the end of the day, we all want to see football on the football pitch. 

AFCB will come out a tighter unit from this and the players can motivate themselves by trying to do even more to win the next five games. UTCIAD!

2 comments:

  1. ...not unexpected at all, he was tried by the media before his hearing...it is a joke!

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  2. Don't quite see that if it was deliberate he can only have thought about it for about 1 second, wheras Ibra thought fully about what he was going to do for 30 seconds whilst the corner was about to be taken. Surely that warrants a bigger ban. It could have broken Mings jaw.

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