FA won’t take action over Manchester United duo’s comments

The Manchester United left-back, Luke Shaw, has emerged as one of the major talking points following the club’s underwhelming draw on visit to Stamford Bridge this Sunday, which ended in a 0-0 draw. Chelsea hosted the Red Devils in what was a very important game with huge top four implications.

However, as it turned out, United played a hard-fought yet goalless draw. They managed to engineer quite a few opportunities with no end product throughout the game.

But the most controversial moment of the game arrived early in the first-half, with the match referee Stuart Attwell running towards the pitch-side VAR monitor to check on whether Chelsea right wing-back Callum Hudson-Odoi had handled the ball inside the box.

After studying the situation, Attwell ultimately stuck with his original decision. In the post-match interview, Shaw was asked about the matter. And the left-back claimed that the referee didn’t want to create any controversy by giving the decision.

Manchester United penalty decision created controversy

As reported by the Daily Mail, he said:

"‘The ref even said to H [Maguire], I heard him say if I say it’s a penalty then it’s going to cause a lot of talk about it after so I don’t know what happened there. H [Maguire] said that they got told it was a penalty by VAR.’"

Solskjaer seemed to believe that it was a penalty as well. As reported by Manchester Evening News, he said:

"“Even from here you think it’s a handball and it’s our player that does it. But when you look at it from the video, it’s taken two points from us.”"

The comments had managed to create some controversy of their own. And there were fears that it could lead to the player and the manager facing punishment from the FA. But it looks like that won’t be the case.

As confirmed by a reputed English journalist in Simon Stone, the Football Association evaluated the subject and chose not to charge the duo for their comments:

The 2020-21 season has seen a rejuvenated Shaw dominating the left flank for the Red Devils. The former Southampton man has already made 30 appearances across all competitions, registering six assists so far.

Had Shaw faced a ban, United would have to look at their alternative options in Alex Telles and Brandon Williams.

Coming to the matter of the penalty, it was one that you can see going both ways. Thus, while Manchester United will feel hard done by, it is hard to argue too much about the decision. At the end of the day, a draw was a probably a fair result.