FA reveal reasons behind Chelsea star Diego Costa's three-match ban after Arsenal incident

Diego Costa clashed with Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny

THE Football Association has revealed the reasons behind their decision to suspend Diego Costa for three matches following an incident during the match against Arsenal

 

Costa was handed the ban by the governing body after a panel of three former referees found him guilty of violent conduct for his clash with Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny.

TV replays showed Costa striking Koscielny in the face twice before chest-bumping the same player.

 

Chelsea were furious when the FA announced Costa's ban and manager Jose Mourinho has continued to moan about the decision.

On Tuesday, when asked how a team of Diego Costas would get on, he said: "We would lose every game.

 

"The desire to suspend him is so great that you wouldn't have enough players to start the game.

"I am happy to only have one and let him play until they decide to suspend him again."

And today, the FA have released the written reasons behind their ruling.

All three of the referees were consulted separately and agreed that, if the referee had seen Costa's incident with Koscielny, he would have been dismissed for violent conduct.

 

Diego Costa bumps Laurent Koscielny to the ground

According to the document, Costa and Chelsea believed the "the analysis of two of The FA refereeing experts should be discounted".

Costa and Chelsea also claimed "the incident in question cannot be fairly described as violent conduct".

But the Regulatory Commission "did not concur with various aspects of Mr. Diego Costa’s opinion" and said: "The incident occurred away from the flow of the match ball; that his arm was pulled back and struck the opposing player who was behind him in the head and concluded this action of the arm was an act of violent conduct."

Costa has served two of his three match suspension - Walsall and Newcastle - with the final game being Saturday's fixture against Southampton.