Tuchel charged again by The FA, this time for comments about terrible refereeing

As expected, Thomas Tuchel has been charged for his post-match comments about the quality of refereeing by Anthony Taylor in Chelsea’s match against Tottenham Hotspur. Not sure why it took over a week for The FA to “investigate” these public comments from the Chelsea boss, but I expect zero competence from the game’s governing body, and they’ve once again delivered in heaps.

Having already received a fine and a suspended one-match ban for the handshake incident with Antonio Conte (who received a smaller fine and no ban), Tuchel now faces an additional fine and possibly ban for questioning the “integrity” of the officiating and/or “implying” bias. It’s a particularly amusing charge given VAR official Mike Dean’s mea culpa in the Daily Mail last week.

The FA’s handling of these matters continues to perpetuate the notion of this being a personal issue between referees and teams — and especially Anthony Taylor when it comes to Chelsea — when what they (and we) should be doing is looking at systemic solutions and improvements instead. Alas.

Until next time then.