I think its because the FA always like to give full retrospective backing and support to their referees in the public eye. Whether they do internally is a different question. In some cases though e.g. Mcmanaman's and Aguero There should definitely be some sort of punishment

Did anyone understand a word of that?

You can 'see' an incident and still not actually see what happened. How often have you seen an incident and immediately thought one thing then on repeated slow mo replays realised your initial verdict was wrong.

The rule is idiotic, we all understand refs are human and prone to mistake. The rule just makes a mockery of the FA. I 'saw' the incident live on the TV but it wasn't until the replays that I actually saw the stamp by Aguero.

Joke, typical from the FA.

I think the FA should show some balls and if it thinks there have been wrong decisions made it should change them. This works both ways - if a player is wrong sent off, it should be rescinded, if it feels a player should be more harshly dealt with than what the ref has done, it should do so. This is not about protecting refs, but making sure that the right decisions are made.

There should be an acceptance that with the reluctance to use too much technology, refs have an impossible job to get everything right, and whilst hopefuly they get most things right, there will always be errors and they will always miss things. It will hopefully stop players getting away with a lot of misdemeanours and perhaps lead to players taking more responsibility for their actions.

Amongst other things, there needs to be an option of either a sin-bin or a three card warning system - too many players either getting sent off for 2 clumsy but not necessarily bad challenges, ruining a lot of games, or the ref bottles the decision and doesn't give a second yellow.

The game is a lot quicker, probably a lot more cynical, but very little has changed in the rules or use of technology to assist. The fact it's taken so long to get in goal-line technology is a simple example of how slow football is at changing.

Bring a sin bin in and next it's American commentary giving it "a ten minute power play on the offense"

Just allow an Fa panel to re judge moments like agueros moment of madness yesterday.

He should have received a ban and fine.

If it was a bad tackle and the ref saw it then i understand the whole they can't take further action rubbish.

But what aguero did was pretty much assault, no intention of playing the ball and went in to deliberately hurt Luiz. Football should follow rugby and cite players for these things

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it makes a total farce of the rules and its far too arbitrary as it allows the referee to cop out. No hard feelings against Aguero, he is a lucky boy but something similar happened with Rooney a couple of seasons ago when he elbowed a Wigan player in the face. The rules are stupid and need changing.

Agreed, a panel should be set up to deal with incidents like this.

"But what aguero did was pretty much assault"

Not defending what he did, but I can tell you with some certainty, it's pretty much NOT assault.

The respect campaign is already enough of a joke without public inquests into every poor decision that's made each week, not a place I think we want to go to be honest.

The rules surrounding retrospective punishment are in need of change, but it's important that referees are allowed to maintain some degree of integrity.

To be honest if the Fa didn't give the ref's their backing and left them out to dry every time they got a decision wrong, who would want to become a ref? They are already in short supply as it is

It's not about leaving them out to dry, but making sure that the correct decisions are made. There are 2 main problems:

1) Making sure the refs get the respect that they deserve, not some token gesture from players and managers, but making sure that players and managers behave in a manner that is aforded to other officials in other sports

2) Making sure that glaringly bad decisions are rectified after matches, and applying some common sense, rather than hiding behind some technicality. Refs make mistakes, it's a fact of life, just as players and managers do. Accept this, because there's nothing worse than trying to justify a ref decision that is blatantly wrong - it's not about undermining refs, it's about getting the correct decisions made.

Wow gratedbean, were you really saying that back when the Rooney incident happened?

If he saw it then the FA are powerless to do anything about it because of their own rules and they have to at the very least follow their own rules.

The problem with having incidents reviewed in such a way is it could start getting silly with the amount of incidents they could have to start reviewing...

Not saying it is a terrible idea but it could have some drawbacks.

Have a review for violent incidents such as that and the Rooney elbow.

We can already have players appeal ban for a red card. We could have teams appeal to the FA if a violent conduct happens and a red isn't shown.

Just to clarify, I meant that similar to rugby you have the equivalent of a citing commissioner - so he can review the more serious matters, and then make a judgement call on them. He can simply make a note of them as he watches the match - I don't actually think there would be that many controversial incidents to review where he can make a retrospective decision after the game has ended, and hopefully it could rectify any wrongful / missed dismissals.