Liverpool's Martin Skrtel charged by FA for alleged stamp on David de Gea

Skrtel went unpunished during the match for the apparent stamp on De Gea

The Football Association have decided to charge Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel for an alleged stamp on Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea during Sunday’s Premier League match. Skrtel appeared to have intentionally stamped on United keeper’s foot in the last seconds of the match at Anfield.

The match also saw Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard sent off for a similar stamp on Ander Herrera 38 seconds after coming on as a substitute. However, Skrtel’s offence was missed by referee Martin Atkinson and his assistants and the Slovakian was not shown any cards.

The FA though have decided to take retrospective action based on television footage and confirmed that Skrtel has been charged with violent conduct on the field and gave the defender until 6 pm UK time on Tuesday to respond.

Statement describing the FA rule

“In Premier League matches, if an incident has not been seen by the match officials, a three-man panel of former elite officials will be asked by the FA to review the footage independently of each other.

“They will then advise what, if any action, they believe the match referee should have taken had it been witnessed at the time. For an FA charge to follow, all three panel members must agree it is a sending-off offence. In this instance, the decision by the panel was unanimous.”

If Skrtel is found guilty, he would face a three-match ban which will rule him out of the Premier League matches against Arsenal and Newcastle United along with the FA Cup quarter-final replay against Blackburn. Steven Gerrard has already been handed a ban for the above three matches.

Liverpool lost the match 2-1 and have fallen five points behind fourth-placed Manchester United in the race for a Champions League spot.