What will the outcome be on Joey's appeal? After watching the "so called head but" on numerous occasions and listened to ex referees and players both on tv and radio, i am none the wiser. Every pundit whether ex player or ex ref have all come to the same conclusion that Barton never head butted Johnson, but i am still thinking that Joey will have his red card upheld and maybe another game or two on top for a frivolous appeal. The FA have said the JB or NW won't be charged for their comments after the game, but will they take this opportunity to do their worst?
If he didn't nut him I don't see how they can uphold his red card. I reckon both Joey and the Canary C*nt should have got yellow (the canary red if he did play act being hit). Joey has already missed most of one game so don't see that he should face any further suspension, but then this is the FA....
From other, clearer replays, it does show a very slight forward movement of Bartons head and unfortunately as stupid as it would be, I have a feeling the FA will uphold his ban.
If you look at what Barton did, he moves his head forward, as did the Norwich player so that they were head to head. The only thing Barton does after this is push the guy away softly with his arms, which is when the muppet holds his face. None of which was seen by either ref or lino. The problem is bartons past as it caught up with him. Until Barton can take a two footed challenge in the balls and doesn't retaliate, every little incident he is involved in will go against him. But he should know that if he goes head to head with anyone, it isn't going to go in his favour. Can't see the FA changing anything as that would basically mean admitting to incompetence in their refereeing standards. No news there.
Whatever Barton has or has not done before is irrelevant to whether or not the red from the Norwich game is upheld or not. Or should be!
Harsh,but I reckon Barton would have done exactly the same to Johnson...hes been dong it all his career!...people in glass houses. FA decision upheld
Agree with GomadgeGo, i saw a secondary sight head movement from Barton and this could be considered a headbutt (a very weak and ineffective one - i bet Barton wishes he planted the nut on him properly now). I think the whole incident will probably be considered violent conduct and the red will be upheld, if so i think the rules state its a mandatory 3 match ban for violent conduct. Doesn't seem fair that Johnson gets away with nothing though, but that's football. Regards Johnson's reaction, its terrible when players over react like this in order to get someone sent off, just ask Gervinho who was probably laughing his bollocks off when he saw it. Gervinho's red card and 3 match ban for his altercation with Joey earlier on in the season was upheld by the way although he did actually make contact with a slight slap on Bartons head. Barton as you may recall went down as if he had been shot in the face.
The second half of your post makes no sense considering th first part. The first part you are absolutely right- movement is clear and that is a red card offense. Barton even admitted touching Johnson on twitter yesterday. So I fail to see what Johnson has done wrong? If he had dived, the worst punishment he would have got is a yellow- no more no less. Why all this screaming for a red? That's not in the rules. Also, he hardly made a meal of it compared to the vast majority of rolling arounds we see. In fact, I don't think the ref even saw his brief touching of the nose. I hate the way footballers over do it every time they are taken down and it's a foul, but it's part of the modern game, and I'd say Johnson's reaction was not as bad as 75% of reactions we see when they clutch their ankles and bury heads in the ground only to jump up fine ten seconds later
Just in the FA have dismissed the appeal so that's the end of that. He must serve a 3 match ban. Always said the FA were a bunch of spinless muppets who do nothing and get paid a lot of money.
Rob - for me the incident came about because Johnson firstly fouled Barton and then squared upto him, that's a yellow card for me. Either for unsporting behaviour or in the case of his reaction simulation, whatever contact there was was minimal and did not warrant spinning around and holding his face as if he had actually been headbutted, the later photo he then tweeted accusing Barton's of having halitosis also isn't very clever given the circumstances and could be considered bringing the game into disrepute but i think everyone who made comment after the game is probably guilty of that one. So for me a yellow for Johnson and a red for Barton would seem reasonable. I agree with your point that his reaction was not as bad as many we see including Barton's against Gervinho. I have to watch 10 year olds copying this on Sunday morning and it looks even more pathetic when they do it.
The simple matter is that the ref was not up to standard and had he cracked down on the fouls and blatant kicking of Barton early on then this would not have happened. It was if the game plan was to wind him up and kick himoff the park. Oh well time for the squad to show some teeth and step up to the mark and make it a hard decision to bring him straight back into the team.
