Dominic Calvert-Lewin escaped punishment after tugging Marc Cucurella’s hair during Leeds’ FA Cup semi-final clash with Chelsea.
And fans are questioning why he didn’t face consequences after Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez was sent off for doing the same to the Leeds striker earlier this month.
Calvert-Lewin tugged on Cucurella’s hair in the first half, with the Spaniard falling dramatically.
Play was stopped as the footage was inspected in a VAR check but the Englishman was spared any reprimand.
Some would argue that the severity of the offence was different to Martinez’s antics – indeed TNT Sports’ commentary team took it that way – but many viewers did not see it that way.
‘Martinez got sent off for pulling Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s bobble. Dominic Calvert-Lewin gets away with pulling Cucurella’s hair. Please make it make sense,’ said one on X.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin escaped punishment for this hair pull on Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella
But Man United’s Lisandro Martinez was dismissed for this tug on the Leeds man on April 13
‘Red card for Martinez, not even a yellow for Calvert-Lewin. Do you mind giving us explanations, PGMOL?’ asked another.
‘So Calvert Lewin can now also get away with pulling hair after getting someone else sent off for pretending his was pulled,’ one said.
‘Calvert-Lewin not sent off for a ‘hair pull’, double standards in action once again,’ another wrote.
But one viewer hit back: ‘There’s no comparison between the two cases VAR quickly confirmed Calvert-Lewin never touched him.’
Although hair pulling is not explicitly mentioned in the laws of the game, it is deemed ‘violent conduct’ regardless of intent or severity, which often leads to huge backlash among fans, players and managers over ‘soft’ dismissals.
Man United defender Martinez’s tug on Calvert-Lewin’s ponytail proved costly a fortnight ago as Leeds went on to win 2-1.
The controversial red card at Old Trafford followed intervention from VAR official John Brooks, who advised referee Paul Tierney to review the incident after spotting the hair pull on Calvert-Lewin.
Manager Michael Carrick raged: ‘It was a shocking decision to send Licha off. That’s two games in a row we’ve had those decisions go against us, but that one was one of the worst I’ve seen.’
‘You can elbow Leny Yoro in the side of the head, a leading arm, obviously. Then you can throw your arm in Licha’s face and as he’s off-balance because of that, he half touches the back of his hair which pulls the bobble out and leads it to look like … I don’t even know what it looks like.
‘It’s not a pull, it’s not a tug, it’s not aggressive. He touches it and gets sent off. Worst of all is [the referee] was sent to overturn it as a clear and obvious error. It’s shocking.’
Roy Keane, watching on from the Sky Sports studio, admitted that the red card decision was ‘harsh’ but insisted Carrick had to ‘suck it up’ and accept United’s slow start cost them the game.
‘He’s obviously frustrated but you have to suck it up,’ Keane said on Monday Night Football.
‘United never got going, he’ll always be learning about this group and they’ll have their ups and downs. Been all plaudits so far but this is a big setback. They don’t want to finish season badly, tonight especially against Leeds, the way they performed is a big setback.
‘As ex-players that seems really harsh, but we’ve seen other players get sent off (for that). It is harsh but within laws of game, VAR you’ve got to accept it, we’ve seen it happen before.’
More to follow.
