Manchester United saw Lisandro Martinez sent off for pulling the hair of Dominic Calvert-Lewin during the 2-1 defeat to Leeds United on Monday night
Lisandro Martinez leaves the pitch after being controversially sent off during Manchester United’s defeat to Leeds(Image: Mark Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The fallout from Lisandro Martinez’s red card continues to rumble on as Manchester United weigh up an appeal against the defender’s three game ban for a hair pull on Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Martinez was sent off by referee Paul Tierney after the VAR officials intervened during the second half of United’s 2-1 defeat to Leeds on Monday night. Martinez had tugged at Calvert-Lewin’s hair when challenging for a header and Tierney viewed the footage and sent the Argentina international.
It prompted a furious response from United boss Michael Carrick, who labelled the decision one of the worst he’d ever seen when speaking after the game. And the decision has led to a debate over the merits of hair pulling being regarded as violent conduct, which carries a three game suspension.
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The frustration felt by many at United will come through inconsistencies given Tierny was the referee when Fulham’s Kenny Tete avoided a red card against Manchester City earlier in the season despite seemingly pulling Antoine Semenyo’s hair.
“I felt it, I told the ref straightaway, but he said there wasn’t enough, so they just left it as that,” said Semenyo after the game.
Referee Tierney halted play as VAR Neil Davies reviewed the but no further action was taken as it was deemed there was no clear evidence of violent conduct.
Former City goalkeeper Joe Hart said at the time: “I don’t know [why Tete wasn’t sent off]. I’d like to think I knew what they mean by these rules.
“If the rule is, ‘if you pull someone’s hair, then you’re getting sent off’, then of course that’s a red card. I’d like to think there is a little bit of wiggle room in it.
“Tete’s got his eyes on the ball, and he’s just looking to make contact with Semenyo. He’s not looking to grab his hair, but he has – there’s no getting away from it. He’s very lucky. He’s not intentionally gone there to pull his locks out.”
That decision, reached because the camera angles could not definitively show the hair pull, will have also angered Everton boss David Moyes who saw Michael Keane dismissed for a similar incident to Martinez in the 1-1 draw with Wolves earlier this season.
After the game the Toffees boss let rip at the rules, labelling the decision ‘ridiculous and hopeless.’ Everton appealed the ban but it was rejected and Keane sat out the next three games.
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“It wasn’t a deliberate action of pulling the hair. It certainly wasn’t violent,” said Moyes at the time. “If you have longer hair, then there’s a fair chance you’ll get it pulled. If you don’t have it long then you won’t get it pulled.
“It is not violent, it is not forceful and it is not deliberate so all of those things I have said mean it shouldn’t have been a red card.
“I think it was a really poor decision to send him to the screen in the first place. [Marc] Cucurella got his hair pulled [by João Neves in the Club World Cup final] – violent conduct, a deliberate action, no problem with that.
“But this was in the game, on a ball coming up and unless you have played the game you might not understand. I have been a centre-half and there is no way I am jumping to out-jump a big centre-forward and think: ‘By the way I am going to out-jump him and at the same time I am going to pull his hair.’
“I don’t know anyone on the planet who is good enough to think that way when they are jumping up. I thought it was a ridiculous decision by the referee, but more by VAR. I thought the ridiculous bit came from VAR.
“It can’t be violent conduct for that. I just can’t see how that warrants a sending off. Why would that be a red card and we’re letting other things go. Ridiculous. Hopeless.”