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Football

17th Oct 2020

Sergio Aguero escapes booking after grabbing official Sian Massey

SportsJOE

Any physical contact with match officials should result in a yellow or red card

Only Sergio Aguero could tell you what was going through his head when he grabbed the shoulder of official Sian Massey-Ellis during Manchester City’s league encounter with Arsenal. In all likelihood, it was more like a brain-freeze.

The Argentine was contesting a throw-in near the end of a first half that City edged, and were leading 1-0.

Massey-Ellis awarded the throw to Arsenal and Aguero was not best pleased. After remonstrating with the match official, Aguero foolishly reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

Massey-Ellis was not allowing such an over-stepping of the mark to stand and swotted away Aguero’s arm as the game continued. She opted not to bring the incident to the attention to match referee Chris Kavanagh.

Had Massey-Ellis done so, or had Kavanagh witnessed the incident, Aguero would have surely been cautioned for his actions. Any physical contact with match officials by a player should result in a yellow or red card, depending on its’ severity.