Diego Costa charged by FA for violent conduct; Faces three-match ban

Emre Can reacts after Diego Costa stamped on him

Chelsea striker Diego Costa has been charged by the FA for violent conduct on the field in the Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool. Chelsea won the match 1-0, but the match was littered with incidents involving Costa. He now faces a three-match ban because of his conduct and unless anything unlikely happens, is likely to miss Chelsea’s matches against Manchester City, Aston Villa and Everton.

The charge is in relation to his stamp on Emre Can in the 12th minute of the game. The referee, Michael Oliver, did not send Costa off for the stamp in the match.

Costa was involved in three separate incidents in the match, firstly with Emre Can after the Spaniard stamped on Can’s ankle. The second incident was after the referee had blown the whistle for a foul when he repeated the same on Martin Skrtel.

While the third incident was when he got into a physical battle with Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard. He was pictured grabbing Gerrard’s face and the two had to be separated by teammates.

The FA will not take any action on Costa’s stamp on Skrtel, but have charged him for the incident with Can. Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho looked to downplay the incident by calling the stamps ‘accidents’ while Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was clearly aggrieved at the treatment meted out to his players by the Chelsea striker.

Costa is infamous for plenty such incidents in the past as well as he is known as someone who thrives on bending the laws of the game. One such incident saw him throwing his spit at Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos when Costa was with Atletico Madrid.

The FA has given him till 29th January, 6 p.m. to respond to the charge.

Here is the incident for which the Spaniard has been charged by the FA:

Looked like a stamp on Can from Costa, no?? #CFC #LFC [via @6secondsavage] https://t.co/tdbG7ffnHy

— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) January 27, 2015