Erling Haaland could be charged by the English Football Association for criticising the performance of match officials after reacting to a controversial late decision by referee Simon Hooper during Manchester City‘s 3-3 draw with Tottenham with a post on X saying, “Wtf.”
Dejan Kulusevski‘s 90th minute header secured a point for Spurs, but City were denied a match-winning chance five minutes into stoppage-time when Hooper stopped play when Jack Grealish raced onto a through ball by Haaland.
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Haaland had been fouled by Spurs defender Emerson Royal inside the centre-circle but regained his feet to pass to Grealish. Hooper had initially signalled he was playing the advantage, but then blew his whistle when Grealish looked set to race clear on goal.
The decision prompted a furious response from Haaland, who was shown a yellow card by Hooper, but the Norway forward is now in danger of FA sanction for his post on X if it is deemed to breach Rule E3.1, governing social media comments or remarks made in the media.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was charged by the FA for comments made about the match officials following the Gunners’ 1-0 defeat at Newcastle last month and ESPN has contacted the FA to ask whether Haaland will also face censure.
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou said after the game that his team had “got away with one” following Hooper’s decision and although City manager Pep Guardiola said that the incident wasn’t the reason his team drew the game, he defended Haaland’s angry reaction.
“It’s normal,” Guardiola said. “His reaction was the same for 10 players. The rules are you cannot talk with the referees or fourth officials, so we should have had 10 players sent off today. He’s a little bit disappointed.
“Even the referee — if he played for Man City today he would be disappointed for that action, that’s for sure.
“I make mistakes, players make mistakes. When Erling goes down, the ref said play on and after making the pass, he stopped the game.
“I don’t want to criticise him. Sometimes on the touchline I lose my mind, my gestures are not proper, but we didn’t draw for that. Spurs are happy with a point, we are a little less happy.”