Rehanne Skinner has admitted that Tottenham were ‘shocked and disappointment’ after Eveliina Summanen was handed a two-match ban for the ‘successful deception of a match official’.
Summanen clutched her face after being pushed on the shoulder and into the turf by Ella Toone during Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Tottenham in February following a coming together between the pair.
Toone was shown a red card for violent conduct, but subsequently had this rescinded after United appealed the decision.
Read Also
Summanen will miss Tottenham’s upcoming fixtures against Reading and Manchester City due to her role in the incident.
“The red card removal is one that’s potentially challenging.
Whenever you’re raising your hands in that situation, going after a player aggressively, if we’re not interpreting the rule of violent conduct in the right way, then that’s a bigger problem that we need to look into.
That’s happened and was evident so I think the challenge we have is what precedent are we trying to set?
“If you’re on the floor and someone comes at you with their hands out, you’ve only really got two choices: one is to retaliate and the other is to protect yourself.
Summanen is believed to be the first WSL player to be banned for the successful deception of an official – a law that was first introduced by the FA in May 2017.
That’s something that definitely needs to be addressed moving forward if we’re actually trying to grow the game in the right direction.”
