Roy Keane reopened a long-standing dispute with the Haaland family after the confrontation between Manchester City striker Erling and Arsenal defender Gabriel. The incident began with a grappling moment from an aerial challenge in which the two players came together, pressed foreheads and Gabriel pushed his opponent forward. It was not a full headbutt, but it came close. Haaland appeared dumbfounded and his refusal to hit the deck may have prevented Gabriel receiving a red card and a three-match suspension.<\/p>\n
There was no VAR intervention. The Match Center ruled the action not to be “excessively aggressive or violent”, citing a perceived lack of force.<\/p>\n
Keane commented on the episode during the latest episode of Stick to Football, where the panel discussed the match and the Haaland-Gabriel flashpoint. “His dad would have gone down. I am sure of it. Sorry,” Keane chimed. The line referred back to Keane’s infamous knee-high challenge on Alf-Inge Haaland, then of Manchester City, during a heated derby clash in 2001.<\/p>\n
The animosity between the pair has earlier roots. In 1997 Haaland, then of Leeds United, stood over Keane accusing him of feigning injury when Keane had in fact torn an ACL.<\/p>\n
Keane later addressed the 2001 tackle in his autobiography, released the following year. He wrote: “I\u2019d waited long enough. I f—-ng hit him hard. The ball was there [I think]. Take that you c—. And don\u2019t ever stand over me again accusing me of fake injuries.”<\/p>\n
The consequences of the 2001 incident were significant. Keane received an initial red card that triggered a three-match ban and a \u00a35,000 fine. His admission that the tackle was premeditated prompted a further five-game suspension and a larger \u00a3150,000 fine. After Keane’s 2002 revelation Manchester City sought to pursue lost earnings on Haaland\u2019s behalf. It is notable that the Norwegian midfielder finished the match in which the tackle occurred, played 45 minutes in an international fixture and then 68 minutes in City\u2019s next league match. He eventually retired in 2003, with a long-term, preexisting injury to his left knee the ultimate problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Keane mocked the Haaland family after Erling’s clash with Gabriel on Stick to Football in the panel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1056,172],"tags":[1606,1607],"class_list":["post-12875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-feud","tag-tackles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}