A six-game ban for Leeds’s Samuel Sáiz is the mandatory FA punishment for spitting but is it really twice as bad as elbowing or punching?
When Samuel Sáiz spat at the Newport County midfielder Robbie Willmott he revived the forgotten scourge of football. After a few years away gobbing is back, effortlessly renewing its position as the No1 most offensive act in football. The only question about the seriousness of this act being; is it really?
Newport had taken an injury-time lead in Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Leeds United when Willmott began strutting around, his shirt taut in front of him as if he was about to catch a falling kitten from a house fire. Sáiz, he claimed, had left a trail of expectorate on his jersey. The referee, Mike Dean, was informed, Sáiz was sent off and, on Monday, the Spaniard was given a six-game ban by the FA.
Related: Newport’s Shawn McCoulsky condemns Leeds to another shock FA Cup exit
Related: Health agency tells footballers: stop spitting or risk spreading swine flu
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