Sunderland defender Dan Ballard was sent off for pulling Tolu Alokodare’s hair during the game against Wolves, becoming the latest player to receive a red card for such behavior.
Dan Ballard grabs Tolu Arokodare’s braids (Image: BBC iPlayer)
Regis Le Bris has called on Premier League leaders to review controversial laws regarding hair-pulling. The Sunderland manager was left furious after Dan Ballard was shown a straight red card by referee Paul Tierney for pulling on Wolves forward Tolu Arokodea’s braids during the first half of Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Molineux.
Ballard becomes the third player to be sent off for hair-pulling in the Premier League this season, the second involving Alokodere, who had his braids pulled by Everton defender Michael Keane in January. The law came back into the spotlight last month when Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez was given a red card for grabbing Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s bun against Leeds.
Le Bris said after the game: “We understand the rules and Paul Tierney is a great referee, but the implementation of the rules is very difficult to understand because I don’t think it was a deliberate, violent act.”
“We don’t want to be controversial. We’re here to help the game. A lot of people watch the Premier League so we want our actions to be clean, but football is football. It’s a duel in the air and we have tall strikers around 100kg (weighing) and Ballard is a big guy too, so when you have the ball in the air 20 times in one game, a lot can happen.
World Cup Legends: The stars of soccer’s biggest tournament in history – buy the special edition now
read more: Leyton Orient manager sheds tears at his players in brutally honest interview – ‘Get off the pitch’read more: Watford look for fifth manager in a year after manager sacked over brutal comments
“If the rules were the rules, you would have problems because you couldn’t defend if you had a striker with long hair. That’s more or less what it was. They implemented the rules, but it’s a little difficult to digest.”
Sunderland were leading 1-0 at Nordi Mukiele when Ballard was sacked. Le Bris’ team missed a chance to return to the top half, but Santiago Bueno equalized in the second half for relegated Wolves.
Should a player be sent off for pulling an opponent’s hair? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Regis Le Bris found the decision “incomprehensible” (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Asked how he could avoid similar ejections in the future, the Black Cats manager was puzzled. “First of all, we will see who is the striker,” Le Bris said. “If he has long hair, we have a problem.
“If they play for a long time, be careful, and you’ll see. Sometimes it’s the same thing with handball, but it’s probably a gray area, and with this rule, we’re at a stage where we need to manage the rules to make them clean for different situations.”
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive Mirror Football content every day. Community members also receive special offers, promotions, and advertisements from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check it out whenever you like. If you are interested, please read our privacy notice.
