Johannes Hoff Thorup believes the FA’s retrospective four-game ban for Norwich City midfielder Kenny McLean will set a dangerous precedent.
Thorup was left stunned by McLean’s second lengthy suspension, which was delivered hours before Tuesday’s 0-0 Championship draw at Portsmouth.
The Scot was charge with violent conduct, and City’s subsequent appeal rejected, for an incident in the first half of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at QPR, which was not spotted by the match officials.
The FA acted on video footage to impose a three-game sanction, upgraded to an additional fourth game due to McLean’s recent red card against Middlesbrough.
“Everyone is disappointed with how this how gone, and everyone is disappointed with the professionalism being shown in a league where we spend so many hours to be at our best and prepare players and make sure that we deliver the best possible show for travelling fans as well,” said Thorup, who revealed he was only informed of the decision at 3pm. “And then things like this should not be able to happen on a game day.
“I cannot go into detail, you know the rules, and you know now ‘Big Brother’ is watching, so I need to be careful. That’s how it is. But I think it’s impressive that we come away with a suspension based on what happened in that game.
“We even spoke to someone from the department that takes care of the referees after the game, where they also accepted that that was probably not their best game.
“I’ve never had anything like that in my career. I will have to go through every Championship game to clearly find incidents in all the games.
“And of course, we need to appeal them. I’ve never seen anything like this, but they opened the door for a new strategy, a new way of working, and a new competition for us, because I expect that the same will happen to all the other teams. Otherwise, we don’t compete on equal terms.
“So I’m looking forward to what we can expect on Sunday (against Burnley), probably the team that we prepare, that we play against, will be different, because the FA will look at possible suspensions, and it will be the case for the rest of the season now the FA have decided this is the way to go.
“They have opened the door where they can possibly go back in time and then take decisions like that, and even on game days, they can present the news to the team. A whole new world for us. So I’m looking forward to go back and watching all the Championship games tonight and tomorrow, and then find out how many suspensions there will be between now and the weekend.
“I don’t think I give away too much of our preparation if I say that Kenny was a part of our preparation, but at 3pm we needed to change that, and we needed to change the line up, and of course bring a player in Marcelino (Nunez) onto the pitch, which was not ideal for us because he struggled with an injury, and not ideal for him to play another game so close to Saturday’s game. So we also put that at risk.
“It’s not the way that I’m used to working in the federations I’ve been a part of, and it goes from the Danish one to Uefa. It’s a new world for me, and I cannot do anything else than except that’s probably how it is. But I think it’s a surprise to everyone working within professional football.”
