Manchester City have been charged by the FA after their players confronted referee Simon Hooper, with Ally McCoist questioning if their punishment should be harsher than a fine
Ally McCoist has questioned whether Manchester City should be handed a points deduction after being hit with an FA charge for the third time this year.
City have been accused of failing to control their players during Sunday’s thrilling draw with Tottenham. Star striker Erling Haaland and several of his team-mates surrounded referee Simon Hooper after he dropped a clanger by denying Jack Grealish the chance to go through on goal in stoppage time.
If found guilty, City are set to be handed a large fine, having already been punished for the same offence in February. But McCoist has warned that they could face the threat of points deductions if their bad behaviour towards referees continues.
“You can argue he [Haaland] has been punished, even if it’s the club who’s taking the brunt of it. Not a good image at all. I think he’s extremely fortunate because I think out of all the players Manchester City failed to control, he was the one who went over the top,” McCoist told talkSPORT.
“Am I surprised? No. Is he very lucky? You better believe it. It looks terrible doesn’t it. The next step is, do you dock them points? I mean, do you? That’s a big one, that’s massive. I think that’s the last straw.
“You certainly don’t want to go down that road. But it’s not so long ago that I remember Fergie’s United players were doing the same. Roy and the boys and Gary surrounding referees you know, so this ain’t new, but not a good look at all.”
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MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 03: Referee Simon Hooper is surrounded by Erling Haaland, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Dias of Manchester City after he stopped the game to award Manchester City a free kick and deny Jack Grealish (not pictured) the chance to play on and have a goal scoring chance during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at Etihad Stadium on December 03, 2023 in Manchester, England. (Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Ally McCoist has warned Manchester City they should face harsher punishment for surrounding referee Simon Hooper
Haaland followed up his immediate response to Hooper by quote tweeting a video of the incident with the caption “WTF” after the game. While McCoist admitted he did not expect a charge for the striker for that, he did insist Haaland was fortunate not to personally face punishment.
“I think he’s lucky. Having said that, I cast my mind back 24 hours and I actually thought and said that’s exactly what would happen. That doesn’t mean he’s not fortunate to get away with it,” he added.
“I actually said as wrong as the reaction was, I could understand that a little bit more than the tweet. I thought when you’ve got time to cool down, he’ll have realised he made a mistake and it looked terrible.
“If we’re trying to set an example to kids playing Saturday morning football, Sunday morning football all over the place, you can’t have the top striker in the world screaming in the face of a referee.
“It’s not on, you can’t have it. I don’t care what anybody says. As I say, I can understand his reaction as wrong as it was, but I did think nothing would come of it. I think they’ve looked at the whole situation and City have been charged, so I get that and Haaland was one of them.”
