Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton has today escaped any punishment from the FA after his challenge on Dickson Etuhu during Sunday's Tyne-Wear Derby. Barton who joined Newcastle in the summer, appeared to stamp on Etuhu's groin just before the half-time whistle at the Stadium Of Light on Saturday.After the incident, Etuhu reacted by squaring up to the former Manchester City player, but amazingly enough Barton escaped any punishment at the time by referee Martin Atkinson. The FA announced on Sunday that they would investigate the challenge, but nothing has come of it. If Barton had of been found guilty he would of faced a possible three match ban.
An FA spokesman said: "The Football Association can only take action in the case of incidents that are not seen by officials. "Whilst it is clear that the officials did not see the full extent of the incident, they did see players coming together and to take any further action would be tantamount to re-refereeing the game and this would be contrary to the laws of the game." Barton, who of course has a history of counterversal incidents has only returned to the Newcastle first team squad after a lenghty lay-off through injury. One of Barton most infamous moments came at Goodison Park last year, (when a Man City player) He pulled his shorts down and mooned the Everton supporters and he rightly received a £2,000 fine from the FA.
So, if you saw Barton's challenge on Saturday, did you think it was worth a suspension? I for one think it was worthy of a suspension.
