Manchester United suffered the consequences of a heavy-handed approach in 2011. Don’t bet on Manchester City receiving the same treatment.
One of the most ridiculous suspensions in recent football history came 12 years ago when Wayne Rooney was suspended for swearing into a camera.
Rooney was officially changed with “use of offensive, insulting and/or abusive language”, per The Guardian after swearing into the camera when celebrating scoring a hat-trick against West Ham.
The club’s record goalscorer received a two-match ban which was unprecedented for the offence. This ruled him out of the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley which United lost to City 1-0.
Demand for Erling Haaland to face Wayne Rooney ban
Erling Haaland was seen on Sky Sports cameras swearing during an interview with Jack Grealish, unleashing the f-word.
Now, of course we don’t actually support a ban for players swearing – but in this case we will make an exception.
Rooney’s outburst was during a match in the heat of the moment and he apologised afterwards. Haaland’s was not, and there has so far been no apology.
Providing the FA drag their heels on this until after City’s game on Wednesday against Brentford, a two-match ban would then cause Haaland to miss the subsequent matches against Brighton, and then the FA Cup final against Manchester United.
We don’t need Haaland suspended to beat City. We saw this at Old Trafford earlier this year in the most recent match between the two teams, when Luke Shaw kept him quiet and we won 2-1. But it would certainly help.
There is no expectation of course that Haaland would actually get a ban.
The two-match swearing ban to Rooney in 2011 has never been repeated since. It would have almost been fine if it set a precedent – instead it has been the outlier.
The exceptions always made for Manchester United, we are used to that. Just like City regularly seem to go unpunished.
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