Taylor swift and the Villainy at the Vitality
And so to the strange case of the Villainy at the Vitality. A routine Premier League game, Bournemouth versus Chelsea, brought 14 yellow cards, £25,000 fines for both sides, both managers also booked, and not a shocker of a challenge in there. Cancel all leave in the FA disciplinary department? It wasn’t the Battle of the Bridge from 2016, it wasn’t even the Battle of the Buffet from 2004. It wasn’t even a skirmish, let alone a battle. So what happened?
Because the man in charge, Anthony Taylor, a former prison officer, is English football’s pre-eminent referee, along with Michael Oliver, his clampdown is being seen as deliberately setting a new tone after the international break. His quickfire bookings have caused outrage. Taylor swift in Bournemouth was not a headline many expected. The Fifa official had given only seven yellows in his three previous Premier League games this season (and none in Spurs-Everton).
Naïve headlines claim that Taylor lost the plot when the reality is far more nuanced than that. A closer look at the Vitality reveals Taylor allowed the game to settle, permitting six fouls before sanctioning a player in the 18th minute, and then two more fouls, before administering a second booking on the half-hour. It was only when the niggling continued, as well as the verbals, that he really cracked down. He gave the players a chance. And maybe he was simply being consistent.
One official privately explained it was nothing new, simply a reflection of a campaign that began last season. All parties, leagues and authorities, players and managers, agreed in 2023 to try to improve behaviour levels with the Participant Behaviour Charter. Cautions for delaying the restart were up to 215 (23/24) from 118 (22/23). Cautions for dissent rose from 79 to 173. So the clampdown was underway.