deserve

Cast your mind back to August 2022. Tottenham defender Cristian Romero tugged back Chelsea‘s Marc Cucurella by his hair.

The VAR, Mike Dean, opted not to intervene for an obvious red card.

It created a line in the sand. From that point on, a zero tolerance approach was adopted.

Has the hair been tugged? Then it is a red card for violent conduct.

A strict application means we have to accept that there are cases, like Keane and Martinez, where the punishment appears too severe.

It is a bit like handball in the Champions League. People do not like some of the penalties, but they know what they are getting.

If you want consistency then you cannot have common sense too.

After the Keane red card, referees’ boss Howard Webb was very clear that hair pulling was “quite an offensive thing”.

“It was the appropriate outcome,” Webb said. “It was unusual but if we see it again next week it will be the same outcome.”

It took a few months before we did see it in similar circumstances with Martinez, and Webb was proved to be correct.

There has only been one other VAR red card in the Premier League, for Southampton’s Jack Stephens on Cucurella.

There have been several other instances in the Club World Cup, Women’s Super League and Women’s Euros.

Hair pulling is one of those dark arts which is usually only spotted through video evidence.

It happens off the ball but is more identifiable than the subtle elbow to the chest or a nip to the stomach.

Even in the EFL, which does not have VAR, Ipswich’s Leif Davis was recently banned after being picked up on camera pulling the hair of Leicester’s Caleb Okoli.

Evidence is not always clear, however.

Fulham‘s Kenny Tete could have been sent off for yanking the hair of Manchester City‘s Antoine Semenyo in February. It may well have happened, but the VAR did not feel the evidence was conclusive enough for a review.

JANE FONDA has taken a brutal swipe at Barbra Streisand as she claims the latter ‘didn’t deserve’ to do the Oscars tribute to Robert Redford.

The US actress, 88, attended the Oscar Awards ceremony Sunday night and revealed that she herself would have liked to have paid tribute to the late actor and friend.

Popular for her roles in Barbarella, Grace and Frankie, and Monster-in-Law the actress hit out at Barbra over the 98th annual awards In Memoriam segment.

The ceremony honoured Robert Redford, an esteemed actor and Oscar-winning director who sadly passed away in September last year. 

Up to the stage to pay tribute to the late star was none other than singer Barbra Streisand, who he famously shared the screen with in 1973 film The Way We Were.

But Fonda seemed put-out by Barbra being chosen to deliver the speech, making her feelings known in a chat with Entertainment Tonight at Vanity Fair’s Oscar after-party.

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She said: “I want to know how come Streisand was up there doing that for Redford?”

“She only made one movie with him, I made four! I have more to say.”

The pair were known for their on-screen chemistry which spanned over decades. 

They co-starred in the films The Chase (1966), The Electric Horseman (1979), Barefoot in the Park (1967), and their latest collaboration, the Netflix romantic drama Our Souls at Night (2017).

Speaking about Redford, Jane added: “ I was always in love with him. The most gorgeous human being and such great values. And he did a lot for movies, he really changed movies, lifted up independent movies.”

Streisand had some touching words when she took to the stage to talk about her former co-star during the awards ceremony tribute. 

She said: “He was a brilliant, subtle actor.

 “And we had a wonderful time playing off each other because we never quite knew what the other one was going to do in the scene.”

Barbra played Katie to Redford’s Hubbell in the movie, which saw two total opposite personalities fall in love with each other.

The Funny Girl actress also sang a rendition of The Way We Were, the hit song from the movie as part of the In Memoriam segment.

Jane Fonda was left devastated by Redford’s death last year.

“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone,” she shared at the time.

“I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”