Toure: Managers and player feel a little bit robbed

LONDON: Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has risked angering the English Football Association by criticising referee Andre Marriner’s refusal to award his team a penalty in their 2-2 Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

City led 2-1 when Tottenham right back Kyle Walker shoved winger Raheem Sterling in the penally area, but Marriner turned down the appeals for a penalty; Tottenham equalised a minute later.

Walker said after the match he was lucky not to have conceded a penalty.

“We feel a little bit robbed because we dominated the game,” Toure said.

“It was a fantastic game for us... When you see how many chances we had, particularly in the first half, it was unbelievable against a big team like Tottenham.

“The manager and the players were frustrated because we feel like we’ve been robbed.

“I’ll go home and watch the highlights and I’ll probably break the screen and be angry because we’ve lost two points like that.

“If the ref (Marriner) looks again he’ll see something was wrong.”

The draw kept City in fifth place in the Premier League table and Toure also suggested Sterling should have gone to ground the minute he felt some contact from Walker to ensure the referee awarded Manchester City a penalty.

“If you have a bit of experience like me, you’d maybe dive in that situation and that’s maybe what you have to do,” he added.

“He (Sterling) is too honest, he wants to be proper in these sort of games. If the lad’s like that, you can’t tell him he’s wrong, if that’s what he tries to do.

“When you see it, he can’t miss from there, he was so close and after that Walker pushes him in the back.”

The midfielder also called for a speedy adoption of video technology, which was tested for the first time by FIFA at last month’s Club World Cup.

“If video can be involved in football it is going to be brilliant,” he said.” - Reuters