Sky Sports pundit Kevin Campbell has slammed the Football Association for their ‘nonsense’ decision to ban Richarlison from playing in his Tottenham debut. 

The Lowdown: Richarlison receives ban

The Brazilian put pen to paper on a five-year contract with the Lilywhites last week when he officially joined the Premier League giants in a £60m move from Everton, but he won’t be able to start life at Hotspur Way how he imagined after a new development has emerged.

Back in May, the 25-year-old picked up a lit flare and threw it into the stands at Goodison Park when celebrating scoring a goal for the Toffees against Chelsea.

As a result of this incident, it’s been revealed by the Daily Mail’s Sami Mokbel that the forward has been handed a one-match ban due to his actions, meaning that he will miss the first game of the new season for Spurs.

The Latest: Campbell’s FA rage

Speaking to Football Insider, Campbell firmly disagreed with the FA’s decision and insisted that the slate should have been wiped clean. He said:

“The powers that be have got it wrong.

“The fact that they have acted, they cannot now turn around and let it go. Once you charge somebody you have to go through with something.

“It is a nonsense, a farce and shouldn’t have ever been done.

“But because they pushed it at the time, they cannot backtrack on it. They had to see it through. I am not surprised that they’ve done it.

“They have deprived Richarlison of his debut for Spurs. Do I agree with it? No, not at all. I think it should have been squashed. He should not have been charged.

“He should be free to make his debut on the first day of the season.”

The Verdict: Unnecessary decision

The fact that Richarlison is now a Tottenham player and has already left the club where the incident took place should be used as means for a new start, rather than the event being prolonged for no apparent reason.

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Paratici and co would have known that this could be a possible outcome before agreeing to sign the striker, but one small potential sanction was never going to be enough to put them off making their move, and rightly so.

The effect of this ban means that Richarlison will miss out on Spurs’ curtain-raiser at home to Southampton on the opening day of the season on August 6, but should come back into contention for the big fixture against rivals Chelsea the following matchday.