Why Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrović will almost certainly not get the same length ban Paolo Di Canio did for Sheffield Wednesday ref push
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Mitrović received a red card for a hot-headed push on referee Chris Kavanagh in their FA Cup quarter final defeat at Manchester United on Sunday.
The remarkable blow-up was instantly compared to that of Paolo Di Canio back in September 1998, when the Italian infamously shoved ref Paul Alcock while playing for Wednesday in a match against Arsenal – an incident many Owls fans regard as the moment from which their descent from the Premier League was kickstarted.
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Hide AdNational media reports were sparked into a search for a precedent for Mitrović’s shove – with many reporting that Di Canio had received an 11-match ban.
Confirming that he would be charged, an FA statement read in part: “The FA has claimed that the standard punishment which would otherwise apply to Aleksandar Mitrović for the sending off offence of violent conduct that he committed towards the match referee is clearly insufficient.
“In addition, Aleksandar Mitrovic’s behaviour and/or language was allegedly improper and/or abusive and/or insulting and/or threatening following his dismissal.”
The FA said that Mitrovic's behaviour after the sending off was insulting and threatening.
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Hide AdBut the technicalities of Di Canio’s 25-year old punishment – which saw Alcock accused of dramatising his fall to the ground – means it seems unlikely the Serbian will be slapped with a full 11-match sit-out.
Di Canio’s ban for the referee shove was actually for eight matches – which was ‘added on’ to a three-match ban for the straight red card shown by Alcock in the immediate build-up to the blow-up that followed. Mitrović, on the other hand, had not received a red card prior to the incident.
The ban was announced at the same hearing – held at Bramall Lane – which has lead to a common misnomer that the shove itself was punished by an 11-match sanction.
With an eight-match precedent there, it remains to be seen what punishment is slapped on Mitrović, whose own push on Kavanagh was – aesthetically at least – far less dramatic than that of Di Canio, who also shelled out a £10,000 fine.