Shaun Wright-Phillips vs Jose Bosingwa: Time to Close This Little Loophole

Football is a funny old game isn't it?

This weekend in the English Premier League referees were once again under the spotlight, most noticeable Mike Riley who ruled over the clash between Chelsea and Liverpool.

Riley was widely condemned for sending off Chelsea's Frank Lampard for what seemed a run-of-the-mill tackle on Liverpool's Xavi Alonso. While the sending off was a bad call, everyone makes mistakes and Lampard was exceptional in how he handled the situation, walking off the pitch without causing a fuss.

As expected, Chelsea challenged the red card and it was rightly rescinded. Lampard is now free to play in Chelsea's next game.

While all this is very fair, it is what has happened over the last two days that is most baffling.

Later in the game and with Chelsea losing to Liverpool, Yossi Benayoun was shielding the ball near the corner flag when Chelsea's Jose Bosingwa took it upon himself to shove the Israeli over the line via some studs in the back.

The linesman waved frantically for the referee's attention, only for Mike Riley to signal for a goal-kick for Chelsea completely ignoring the situation and his assistant.

Did Riley realise he had made a mistake earlier and chose to overlook Bosingwa's moment of madness?

Regardless, the Chelsea manager, fans and indeed Bosingwa himself would had little cause for argument were the Portuguese international given a three match ban for his childish actions.

However, it emerged yesterday that he had escaped any punishment as the officials deliberately decided not to take action against Bosingwa, the Football Association said that, under football rules laid down by world governing body FIFA, they were barred from imposing any disciplinary sanctions upon the Portugal defender.

Rules are rules but the subsequent action taken by the FA regarding Manchester City's Shaun Wright-Phillips calls this into question.

In the game between Stoke and Manchester City, the Potters' Rory Delap had his own moment of madness when he lunged into the back of City's Shaun Wright-Phillips and then kicked the ball at the City player on the ground.

The Republic of Ireland international was rightly given his marching orders.

However, videos replays of the incident showed that Wright-Phillips had kicked out at Delap in retaliation.

Now, the City player faces a three match ban as the referee did not see the incident and said in his report had he seen it he would have taken due action.

There in lies the little loophole that the FA need to eradicate.

Because Mike Riley chose to overlook his assistant's flag, Bosingwa gets off scott free. However, as referee Martin Atkinson did not see the incident involving Shaun Wright-Phillips, the City player now faces a three match ban.

Surely incidents like this deserve action based on their severity and not the whims of a referee.

If I were a City fan I would be very unhappy seeing Bosingwa taking to the field at the weekend and Wright-Phillips up in the stands.

Shaun Wright-Phillips has until 6pm today to challenge the FA's actions.