Former referees' chief Keith Hackett has called for a Premier League rule change and insists that the hair-pulling incident involving Wolves striker Tolu Arokodare was not violent conduct.
The debate over hair-pulling in football has intensified following a series of high-profile incidents this season. The latest came on Saturday when Sunderland defender Dan Ballard was sent off by referee Paul Tierney for pulling Arokodare's hair during a match against Wolves.
This follows similar red cards for Michael Keane in Wolves' clash with Everton and a Manchester United player, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin escaped punishment for a comparable incident in Leeds' FA Cup tie with Chelsea.
Hackett calls for consistency
Keith Hackett, the former head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL), believes the governing bodies must provide clarity on the issue. Speaking to Football Insider, he said: "I think, in football, we should use the word violent sparingly. This is not violent. Violence is where, if there's a ponytail on the player and there's a real yank back, the neck goes and the body falls over."
He added: "I think that they're at the opening end of an extreme in terms of seeing this as a red card. Like any law, if the PGMOL are going to interpret this as a red card and an act of violent conduct, then they have to deliver consistency with it."
Managers warned about long hair
Hackett also suggested that managers will become wary of players with long hair, as the risk of dismissal increases. He noted: "Once we had the first incident where a referee dismissed a player for a hair pull, that's the point at which the coaching management within each club should have stood up in front of the players and said: 'Guys, do not get anywhere near the hair of an opponent because it can be interpreted by the referee as a dismissal.'"
He criticised the current inconsistency, stating: "At the moment, PGMOL have declared that this act of holding hair is a violent act. I think it's in the extreme at the moment. It's in the extreme and it's inconsistent."
Hackett urged the PGMOL to clarify the rule: "If they come out again and reinforce that any contact with the hair, with the hand, is a red card offence, clarify that to the fans, clarify that to every member of the staff in clubs, and then the clubs to tell the players."
