What Would The FA Have Charged Man City Boss With After Liverpool Defeat?

The FA have confirmed that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will not face any action following the blues defeat at Anfield on Sunday.

Guardiola was filmed shaking the referee and assistant’s hands while saying ‘Thank you very much’ in a quite expressive manner. The blues were aggrieved that two penalty appeals for handball were turned down and it seemed that VAR wasn’t consulted, which may have been the reason for Pep’s sarcastic outburst.

The manager has expressed that it wasn’t sarcasm, but was simply thanking the referee. “I said the same thing after the Tottenham game. ‘Thank you so much’. I go over to the referees and my colleagues and I say ‘good luck’ all the time.” Ironically, VAR failed to spot Rodri being wrestled to the ground in the first half, but picked up a less obvious handball in the dying minutes and disallowed Gabriel Jesus’ winner.

But what exactly would Pep have been charged with? Excessive hand-shaking? Using sarcasm and wit instead of anger and aggression? How many times have we seen managers approach referees with the sole intention of having an argument, yet Pep takes a different approach and the FA consider charging him? What an odd world we live in.

Guardiola was obviously upset that City hadn’t been awarded the first penalty and seconds later, Liverpool scored as a direct result from the handball. When asked about the decision, Pep simply replied with “Ask Mike Riley and his people please.”