Fernando Torres has had his ups and downs with Chelsea. His luck was about to run out after a strange series of events that took place during the match against Spurs. The Spaniard just managed to catch a break and made it to the starting line-up, taking Eto’o’s place. Unfortunately for the Spanish international, he received a red card which bans him from playing the next Premier League game. It could have been even worse as Torres could have received an even bigger punishment after scratching Jan Vertonghen. The disciplinary committee that had to decide if Chelsea’s player was guilty of violent behavior was composed out of three ex-referees that eventually decided there should be no action taken against the Spaniard.

A panel such as this is convened whenever referees miss an incident such as the one that took place during the Chelsea-Tottenham match. The strange thing is, the ex-referees decided that Torres could not be judged retroactively. That means he cannot be accused of something that should have been sanctioned during the game. Their decision created quite a stir according to ESPN.

Ex-referee Mark Halsey commented on this decision by saying the FA are a “laughing stock” and that action should have been taken against Torres. He also made some references to the way the people at UEFA handle such situations. In all fairness, Halsey is right. The Spaniard’s behavior would have been punished if this happened during a Europa League or a Champions League match.

According to Halsey, the problem with Torres’s behavior is not as small as you might think. Youngsters look up to people like him and seeing there is no consequences to such actions might attract some negative feedback.

Ballotelli and Suarez also came up and were used as an example for how video footage can lead to retroactively punishing a player. Both of them got substantial time off the pitch for things that were not seen by the referee.

Mourinho is going to be very happy with the FA’s decision especially after he defended his player and called Vertonghen a disgrace because he faked receiving another hit from Torres.