We have been here before this season.
In January, Everton tried to get Michael Keane’s dismissal overturned after he had tugged the hair of Wolves’ Tolu Arokodare.
The Toffees were not successful and boss David Moyes said he was “angry” with the appeal panel and “embarrassed” for the video assistant referee Chris Kavanagh.
FA disciplinary panels, usually made up of three former players, are notoriously hard to predict. It really can depend upon which ex-players you get on your panel.
Manchester United will have to base their appeal on a lack of force in the action, because they cannot claim Lisandro Martinez did not have Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair in his grasp.
In Keane’s case, it was a 2-1 vote to reject the appeal. The majority view was that it fell “outside the normal constituent elements of a challenge in football”.
The other panel member said it was “an action born out of instinct and of minimal force”.
However, Manchester United have nothing to lose because extra games for frivolous appeals were effectively ended 15 years ago when the fast-track system came in.
But Calvert-Lewin going down and holding the back of his head would have been key for the VAR review, and that will make it more difficult to win an appeal based on lack of force.
