Letting Ayew get away with this is shameful
in less time than it takes to flog Wembley Stadium to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the FA decided Jordan Ayew’s blindside assault on gary Cahill on Saturday left no case to answer.
had the governing body been able to take their mind off real estate long enough to achieve rare clarity, this would be Ayew’s last act of the season for Swansea.
he was sent off for a reckless, knee- high challenge on Jonathan hogg of huddersfield on March 10 and received a three-match ban, so a new controversy should have drawn a four-game suspension, keeping him out until after the first game of next season.
it would have been a heavy price to pay, but no more than the attack on Cahill deserved. A rash challenge can cause serious injury, what Ayew did went far beyond that. it wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t an old-fashioned barge.
the ball had gone when Ayew deliberately changed direction to make contact with the Chelsea defender. he did so with a forearm smash to the back of the head, delivered at running pace. Cahill would have had no idea it was coming and made no preparation for it. he was very lucky that Ayew’s aim was off and the blow seemed to make as much contact with his neck. the consequences could have been horrid otherwise.
We know a lot more about head injuries than we used to. We know the potential damage of even intended contact, the mild concussive episodes that can result from simply heading a ball. More importantly, we know how random the effects, how some individuals can be more devastatingly harmed than others.
not every footballer from the 1960s suffered as Jeff Astle did. A lot of players have clashed heads, but only ryan Mason had to retire as a result. Many cricketers have been hit by the ball, but Phillip hughes died. And while plenty of strikers have met a stray elbow, iain hume of Barnsley required emergency brain surgery as a result. the FA decided Chris Morgan had no case to answer over that incident in 2008, too. it was a shameful dereliction of duty, as is this.
Cahill looked confused, then furious, after Ayew struck him, but shrugged it off. Ayew wasn’t to know that, though. no player does, when using his forearm in this way. he could have caught Cahill in an unfortunate spot, he could have caused unimagined damage. the FA seem not to care about that.
he got away with it through an accident of timing. the referee Jon Moss, incredibly, misinterpreted the incident which happened late in the game.
A 5.30pm kick-off is not conducive to early Sunday newspaper edition times so there was little hullabaloo the next day — and we know how FA reactions are often governed by media attention. it didn’t fit their criteria for retrospective action, apparently.
So either Moss saw it and thought no action was required — in which case he might need a year off — or they are more interested in process than justice and player safety.
had Ayew dived, of course, the FA would be all over it. had he worn a yellow ribbon, the letter would already be in the post. But a cowardly, violent, high-speed forearm smash to the head of a player who wasn’t even looking, doesn’t pique the interest of any individual at the FA.
they’ll quote you a price for Wembley, though, these guardians of the game.