Ex-Premier League referee wants Djed Spence banned

Tottenham are in a very difficult moment, and that continued at the weekend with a 2-1 home defeat to Liverpool. Thomas Frank’s side find themselves 13th in the Premier League at this stage of the season, which is a real frustration for the club’s supporters.

One area of frustration for Tottenham during the defeat to Liverpool came in the first half when Djed Spence went down inside the penalty area under a challenge from Conor Bradley. A penalty was called for, but the officials did not see a foul, which attracted the ire of the defender, his manager and the home fans inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Djed Spence accused of diving against Liverpool

According to Ian Wright (via Football London), this was the correct decision, as he accused Spence of trying to trying to buy a penalty from referee John Brooks.

“You can see the other player behind him. He’s got no chance of getting that ball on the other side. So he’s just knocked it inside and just wanted contact and got it. It’s a blatant dive for me.”

Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett was in agreement with Wright, as he called for retrospective action to be taken against the defender.

“Sadly, going to ground to deceive the referee by an act of simulation is a regular occurrence in the modern game. It will continue if referees fail to sanction. I do believe that the authorities need to consider retrospective punishment for acts of simulation.”

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Should Djed Spence be banned resprospectively?

It is rare for PGMOL to take action in a retrospective sense, but it remains to be seen whether this is something that starts to happen in the future. Spence, who penned a new contract at Tottenham earlier in the season, can perhaps count himself lucky that he will not receive any punishment.