The FA's regulatory commission published written reasons for rejecting Lisandro Martínez's red card appeal on a Friday. Two days later, Dominic Calvert-Lewin appeared to pull Marc Cucurella's hair at Wembley and walked away without so much as a yellow card. The timing could not have been more damaging for the credibility of English officiating.
Martínez was sent off during Manchester United's Premier League defeat to Leeds at Old Trafford for what looked, on first viewing, like a fairly light tug of Calvert-Lewin's man bun. VAR flagged it. Red card issued. Three-match ban followed. United appealed, arguing wrongful dismissal and an excessive punishment. The FA panel rejected that appeal, stating they could not conclude "with any confidence" that the force exerted was "negligible" — and pointed directly to Calvert-Lewin's reaction as evidence that he had felt something.
Same incident, completely different outcome
Fast forward to Sunday's FA Cup semifinal. Calvert-Lewin, now the striker for Leeds rather than the victim, appeared to make downward contact with Cucurella's hair midway through the first half. Cucurella's curls flicked upward as Calvert-Lewin's hand moved away. Cucurella immediately grabbed the back of his head. Referee Jarred Gillett missed it in real time, VAR reviewed it, and Calvert-Lewin was cleared — apparently because contact came from "the flat of the hand" rather than a grabbing motion, as relayed by TNT Sports commentator Darren Fletcher who had live access to the VAR audio.
The FA panel's written verdict on Martínez had been explicit: "In the wider interests of football, hair pulling ought not to be tolerated and should be discouraged through consistent punishment." Consistent. That word is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now.
This isn't the first time a hair pull has slipped through the net either. Fulham's Kenny Tete pulled Antoine Semenyo's hair in a Premier League match in February and nothing happened. The Martínez red card, sold at the time as the standard being set, is looking less like a benchmark and more like a one-off.
What this means beyond the outrage
Manchester United fans have every right to feel aggrieved. Their manager at the time, interim boss Michael Carrick, called the Martínez decision "one of the worst" he had ever seen. The club fought the appeal and lost on the grounds that Calvert-Lewin's visible reaction proved force was applied. That same Calvert-Lewin then seemingly pulled hair himself, Cucurella reacted in near-identical fashion, and the verdict was the opposite.
For anyone looking at the Premier League title race or cup markets, these officiating inconsistencies matter. United served a three-match suspension based on a standard that demonstrably hasn't been applied since. That's not just bad optics — it's a tangible sporting consequence that cannot be undone.
The FA said hair pulling "ought not to be tolerated." It was tolerated on Sunday. Those are their own words.
