Football
Doug McIntyre, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Nigel de Jong suspension may be shorter than some expect - Walton

LA Galaxy midfielder Nigel de Jong will be suspended for his for his ugly tackle on Portland's Darlington Nagbe last weekend, MLS commissioner Don Garber confirmed on Thursday. But the league's referee czar suggested that, while the challenge was deserving of a red card, the controversial Dutchman might not have to sit for long.

Garber said that De Jong's suspension, which is expected to be announced on Friday, "will be in line with similar nasty tackles." However, Peter Walton, the general manager of the Professional Referee Organization that oversees the officials who work the domestic league, said the fact that Nagbe wasn't seriously injured could spare De Jong a more severe sentence.

"In terms of the challenge itself, it was a missed red card -- I think everybody, including the referee, realized that afterward," Walton told ESPN FC on Thursday in a phone interview. "But in the past, retrospective action has been based on the consequences of that challenge, in terms of a broken leg, in terms of number of games missed. My understanding is that Nagbe has a sprained ankle, so De Jong may not be given the length of ban that many think he should get."

Former Colorado Rapid Brian Mullan was given a 10-game suspension, the longest for an on-field incident in MLS history, for a tackle that broke the leg of the Seattle Sounders Steve Zakuani five years ago. Timbers GM Gavin Wilkinson has called for De Jong, who was issued only a yellow card by referee Allen Chapman on the play that injured U.S. national team midfielder Nagbe, to get five games. Based on precedent, two or three seems more likely.

The decision will be made by MLS's Disciplinary Committee, on which Walton does not sit. He said that for integrity reasons, his only input on that matter was to tell the body that based on his interpretation of FIFA's Laws of the Game, De Jong should have been sent off.

"I was asked for a refereeing opinion: should that have been a red card under the law, and I said yes," he said. "That was where my involvement ended."

Walton has been in contact with Chapman, who asked his boss and longtime ref in the Premier League before being hired to head up PRO in 2012, if he could skip his scheduled match this weekend given the added pressure and scrutiny he'd be subjected to. Walton obliged.

"Having spoken to the match referee, he didn't see the severity of the challenge. That's down to concentration," Walton said. "And that happens. My job is to make sure they don't make too many mistakes of that nature."

Overall, Walton said the league's data proves that MLS officials are more consistent than ever before this season -- one reason the De Jong-Nagbe incident stood out.

Another recent caution that seemed out of line with the way games have been called this season, a studs-up foul by Toronto FC midfielder Benoit Cheyrou on Colorado's Eric Miller on April 1, also got significant attention. Walton admitted that Cheyrou should also have seen red.

"What we've seen over the last four or five weeks is a much closer-knit level of application of law, and because of it, the ones we miss now are more newsworthy," Walton said. "That to me is showing we're doing the job we should.

"If we're talking about one or two [incidents], it means we're not talking about the four, five, six we have been in the past. That's good for me.

"The aim is to get 100 percent of the decisions correct," Walton continued. "We'll never get to that stage because it's such a subjective game. My aim is to get that figure to as near 100 percent as I can."

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