Credit: Imago, BBC

Oliver Walton

Mon 4 May 2026 16:15, UK

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Howard Webb has been told to adjust PGMOL’s violent conduct rules after Dan Ballard was sent off for grabbing Tolu Arokodare’s hair as Wolves drew with Sunderland on Saturday.

Ballard became the third Premier League player to be sent off for pulling an opponent down by their hair this season at Molineux during the 1-1 draw.

The Sunderland defender was challenging for a long ball with Arokodare before the Wolves striker went down and Paul Tierney subsequently brandished a red card.

Hair-pulling is treated as an act of violent conduct by PGMOL as it stands, with it falling under the ‘brutality’ element of their interpretation of the ruling.

Ballard’s impressive season looks to be over, as he is set to be banned for Sunderland’s final three games against Man United, Everton and Chelsea.

Keith Hackett urges PGMOL to add subjectivity to hair-pulling offences

Lisandro Martinez and Michael Keane are the other two Premier League players to have been sent off for a similar offence so far this season.

Fans have questioned the consistency of the decisions, though, after Dominic Calvert-Lewin avoided red for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair in Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final win over Leeds last weekend.

Hackett slammed Jarred Gillett, while speaking exclusively to Football Insider, for his failure to send the Leeds striker off.

The former refereeing chief has now urged the governing body to change the laws around any hair pull resulting in a red card, or at the very least, fully clarify what the current rules include before next season starts.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, he said: “I think, in football, we should use the word violent sparingly. This is not violent. Violence is where, if there’s a ponytail on the player and there’s a real yank back, the neck goes and the body falls over. 

“I think that they’re at the opening end of an extreme in terms of seeing this as a red card. Like any law, if the PGMOL are going to interpret this as a red card and an act of violent conduct, then they have to deliver consistency with it. 

“I think this is one that needs to be discussed in the summer. We’ve almost seen where the hand is just brushing the player, and that’s been interpreted as a sending-off offence. 

“Once we had the first incident where a referee dismissed a player for a hair pull, that’s the point at which the coaching management within each club should have stood up in front of the players and said: ‘Guys, do not get anywhere near the hair of an opponent because it can be interpreted by the referee as a dismissal.’

“So at the moment, PGMOL have declared that this act of holding hair is a violent act. I think it’s in the extreme at the moment. It’s in the extreme and it’s inconsistent. 

“If they come out again and reinforce that any contact with the hair, with the hand, is a red card offence, clarify that to the fans, clarify that to every member of the staff in clubs, and then the clubs to tell the players.”

What has Regis Le Bris said about Ballard’s sending off?

Wayne Rooney and Joe Hart each insisted live on Match of the Day that Ballard was unlucky to receive his marching orders for little more than a grab on Arokodare’s hair, with the decision branded “ridiculous.”

Sunderland’s failure to win dented their hopes of European qualification, as manager Le Bris fumed at the red card in his post-match interview.

He said: “The execution of the rule is very hard to digest because I don’t think it is intentional and violent conduct.

“We don’t want to be controversial, we are here to help the game, many people are watching the Premier League and we want to be clean in our behaviours, but football is football.

“It is a duel in the air and with a tall striker (who weighs) 100kg more or less, Ballard is massive as well, so the ball in the air 20 times in a game, many things can happen.”