Chronicle Editor
United Kingdom — The English Football Association has charged Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez for comments he made about referee Andre Marriner before his team played Crystal Palace in the Premier League at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Benitez had called on the FA to look into Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha’s statements about not being given enough protection by referees.
The Spaniard had also described Marriner as not having the best record with Newcastle’s players “in terms of red cards”.
“I’m sure that Marriner will not have this in the back of his head,” the Spaniard said.
“He has a lot of experience, even if his record is not the best in terms of red cards, but I’m confident he is a very good referee with a lot of experience and he will deal with the situation in a normal way.”
The FA said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday that Benitez had been charged for his pre-match comments about the referee and had until 6:00PM BST (1700 GMT) tomorrow to respond to the charge.
Newcastle held Palace to a 0-0 draw in the match. — AFP.
derick.khumalo