Erling Haaland facing FA punishment after X-rated reaction to Man City controversy vs Spurs

FA rules suggest a financial penalty would be the most likely punishment for Erling Haaland, should the Manchester City striker be charged and found guilty of breaking social media guidelines.

Haaland took to X to seemingly question the decision of referee Simon Hooper to curtail a late City counter-attack against Tottenham, moments after signalling to play on after the striker was fouled. Haaland picked himself up to send Jack Grealish through on goal, but Hooper then blew his whistle to the anger of Haaland and his teammates.

After Haaland's angry on-field reaction which continued on the pitch at full time, the striker then posted a video of the incident to his account on X (formerly Twitter), with the caption: 'wtf [what the f---]. His father Alfie quickly replied saying: 'terrible'.

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That could land Haaland in trouble with the FA for breaking social media guidelines, in particular Rule E3.1, which concerns: "Comments which are improper, which bring the game into disrepute, which are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting," as well as "Comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials’ integrity or which are personally offensive in nature."

If the FA decide to investigate Haaland's post, they will first seek written observations, or issue a charge within three working days of the post being brought to their attention. After that, Haaland would have three working days to provide any requested observations.

From that, the FA would have three working days from that deadline to decide whether to