Savage demands extended ban

Rams midfielder wants FA to look again at Pintado tackle

Last updated: 26th February 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Savage demands extended ban

Savage: Wants FA action

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Robbie Savage believes Gorka Pintado should be handed an extended suspension after the Swansea midfielder's horror challenge last weekend.

Pintado was dismissed for a two-footed lunge on the veteran Derby midfielder in the Swans' 1-0 victory at Pride Park last Saturday.

The Spaniard is now facing an automatic three-match ban, but Savage believes the Football Association need to look at dangerous challenges again and impose a greater punishment.

"I know that if I hadn't spotted Swansea's Gorka Pintado coming and adjusted just in time to his horrendous foul, he would have broken my leg and finished me as a professional footballer," Savage wrote in his column in the Daily Mirror.

Target

"That's why I believe that the FA must start looking at extending the normal three-match ban for violent conduct when the circumstances are extreme.

"I don't see why the FA can't look again at serious fouls, as they do for incidents missed by the referee, and award a four or five-match ban for the very worst of them.

"I don't mind being a target. In fact, it's almost nice at my age to see that people still rate me highly enough to try to give me a kick now and then.

"But what Pintado did was more than that. The people I've spoken to in the game say it is one of the worst challenges they have ever seen. And faced with that, three games is simply not enough."