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FA could have punished Rooney - Blatter

Wayne Rooney escaped a sanction from the FA for his elbow on James McCarthy © Getty Images

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter believes the FA had the power to punish Wayne Rooney for his elbow on James McCarthy.

Rooney escaped a ban after the FA said they could not take retrospective action against the Manchester United striker, claiming FIFA laws prevented them from doing so because referee Mark Clattenburg saw the event and awarded Wigan a free-kick.

But Blatter said the FA had discretion to punish a player for violent conduct, regardless of whether the referee dealt with the incident at the time.

"This is up to the discretion of the national association," Blatter said. "They can use video evidence in the discipline and control committee. They can impose or change a decision if a red or yellow card has been given to the wrong player.

"If there's violence the national association can intervene and punish a player - this is permitted at the discretion of the national association."

However, FA chairman David Bernstein insisted they had followed FIFA's rules and warned that a dangerous precedent would be set if the FA started acting on what he called "halfway exceptional" incidents.

Bernstein claimed only serious incidents, such as Ben Thatcher's eight-match ban after he fractured Pedro Mendes' skull in 2006, could be deemed "exceptional".

"In the Wayne Rooney situation under FIFA regulations if the referee sees the incident - which in this case he did do, the FA has no authority except in what is called exceptional circumstances, really exceptional - the Ben Thatcher incident is the only one where that has been used," Bernstein said.

"If you open the door to 'halfway exceptional' the floodgates will open. I think that has more merit than meets the eye, the basis of the primacy of the referee staying in place - even though that will upset fans sometimes and quite understandably."

FIFA's rule 77 states "sanctioning serious infringement which have escaped the match officials' attention" and national associations can rectify "obvious errors in the referee's disciplinary decisions".

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