Jamie Vardy could face a Football Association charge for his furious reaction to being sent off — a move that would threaten Leicester City’s Premier League title bid.
Vardy, 29, jabbed a finger angrily at referee Jon Moss after being shown a second yellow card for diving in the 56th minute of Sunday’s 2-2 draw with West Ham.
It leaves leaders Leicester eight points clear of second-placed Tottenham. The England striker will be suspended for next Sunday’s home clash with Swansea but could face an additional ban if the incident is included in the referee’s report and he is hit with a misconduct charge.
Earlier this month, the FA gave Diego Costa an additional one-match ban, £20,000 fine and a warning over future conduct for the way he reacted to his second yellow card in Chelsea’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Everton.
Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri defended Vardy over the red card, saying: ‘He never dives. Always he goes very fast and at this speed if you touch a little [the player goes down.
Ranieri was asked if Vardy sworn at the ref before leaving the field. The Italian did not deny it, replying: ‘I don’t want to speak about referees … Vardy … the situation. I want to stay calm and speak about football.’
The mood also turned ugly when West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan and his family and fellow directors were abused by home fans sitting nearby. Sullivan’s son, David Jnr, claimed on Twitter that objects were thrown at them in a display of ‘vile and disgusting’ behaviour.
He said: ‘We were moved by security for our safety at full time so we were not even able to clap off the team. I don’t think throwing things or screaming abuse with security allowing it to happen, is acceptable.’
West Ham declined to comment officially while Leicester did not respond.
West Ham striker Andy Carroll could also face an FA charge after accusing referee Moss over the controversial last-gasp penalty award.
Moss pointed to the spot when Carroll clashed with Jeffrey Schlupp in stoppage time. Leonardo Ulloa converted the spot-kick.
Carroll, who scored from the spot himself to equalise before Aaron Cresswell put the Hammers 2-1 ahead, said: ‘I think he’s trying to even it up and a lot of people have said that. It was a poor decision. It’s not acceptable — week in, week out we’ve had bad decisions. The same decisions, bad decisions, costing us games. It’s eight points now we’ve dropped. It is not acceptable.
‘Four decisions went against us. When we had our penalty, Wes Morgan said, ‘He doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s been bad all game’. They need video evidence.’
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic implied that Moss was swayed by pressure from the home fans and could face FA action, too.
Bilic felt Schlupp dived to win Leicester’s penalty and said: ‘You have 32,000 people here screaming on every contact in the box, every long ball in the box — if it’s for the home side it’s a penalty or handball. In the other box it’s cheat, dive or whatever, it’s extremely hard for the ref.’