Sunderland’s Dan Ballard became the second player to be sent off this season for pulling on Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Tolu Arokodare’s hair in Saturday’s Premier League game at Molineux.
Ballard saw red in the 25th minute following a VAR review after appearing to hold on to Arokadare’s hair as the forward tried to control the ball. It followed Everton defender Michael Keane being dismissed for the same offence in his side’s 1-1 draw with Wolves in January.
And it came after another similar incident last month, when Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez pulled the hair of Leeds United forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin in Leeds’ 2-1 win at Old Trafford. Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick called that “one of the worst” refereeing decisions he had witnessed.
So, what are the rules around hair-pulling and how might it be punished at this summer’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico?
What is the history of punishing hair-pulling in the Premier League?
Cases are rare but not unique and owe much to a line drawn in the sand after Chelsea hosted Tottenham Hotspur in August 2022. A heated game ended 2-2, but it was Spurs defender Cristian Romero’s hair-pull on opponent Marc Cucurella that created a storm after going unpunished by both the referee, Anthony Taylor, and the VAR, Mike Dean.
“Since when can we pull hair on a football field?” then-Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel told reporters post-match. “It’s ridiculous.”
Dean eventually accepted his error. “I should have asked Taylor to visit his pitchside monitor to take a look for himself,” wrote Dean in his Daily Mail column, saying he had not personally deemed it violent conduct on review.
The subsequent shift has been clear in the age of VAR. Southampton’s Jack Stephens was sent off for pulling Cucurella’s hair when lining up for a set piece during a 5-1 loss to Chelsea in December 2024, again with the official, this time Tony Harrington, not seeing the incident until being sent to the pitchside monitor.
Howard Webb, head of PGMO, explained the reasoning behind the red card during an episode of Mic’d Up, the in-house TV programme that reviews contentious refereeing decisions in the Premier League.
“It just crosses that line of acceptable behaviour on the field of play,” he said. “If you start pulling people’s hair, there’s absolutely no reason to do that. People don’t want to see that happening. And therefore players understand. In most circumstances, it will be seen as more than negligible contact when you start tugging hair, and you’re going to get a red card.”
If there were similarities between the offences committed by Romero and Stephens, Martinez’s dismissal had a greater likeness to the red card shown to Keane earlier this season. He was adjudged to have tugged on Arokodare’s hair during a 1-1 draw at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
David Moyes, the Everton manager, called it a “ridiculous decision” given Keane had been challenging Arokodare for a header in the air, but Webb, again, maintained the right decision had been reached to show a red card after a VAR review.
“For some years now, actions where players have pulled an opponent’s hair are deemed as violent conduct,” he said, speaking on Mic’d Up.
“It is in the guidance we give to clubs before the season starts, the book that the Premier League produces, that grabbing someone’s hair with force is deemed as violent conduct and a player will be sent off… if we see it again next week, it will be the same outcome.”
And Arokodare was at the centre of another of those incidents on Saturday, as Ballard grabbed onto the forward’s hair as an aerial ball came towards him. Arokodare fell to the floor and referee Paul Tierney gave a red card for violent conduct after consulting the monitor.
Although hair-pulling is not expressly prohibited in the laws of the game, it has been considered enough to constitute violent conduct throughout Webb’s time in charge of Premier League refereeing, a spell that began in December 2022.
The guidelines were not always so clear.
Go back to 2016 (before VAR), and Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini elbowed Robert Huth after the Leicester City defender clearly pulled on the Belgian’s hair.
Louis van Gaal, the Manchester United manager, offered up his take before both Fellaini and Huth were given three-game bans by the Football Association in the following days. “It’s not in the books that someone has to grab by the hair and then pull it behind,” he told the BBC. “Only in sex masochism.”
It was then that roles were reversed for Fellaini two years later when he pulled Arsenal’s Matteo Guendouzi back by the hair. No retrospective punishment was forthcoming for a foul that appeared to meet the threshold of excessive force.
Have we seen hair-pulling punished in other competitions?
Well, yes and no.
One of the most high-profile recent episodes came during the quarter-finals of the Women’s European Championship in 2025. Germany midfielder Kathrin Hendrich was caught yanking the ponytail of France captain Griedge Mbock by the VAR, with the officials then sending off Hendrich and awarding a penalty to compound the punishment.
Germany’s Hendrich was caught pulling the ponytail of France captain Mbock (Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)
Consistency, though, has not followed. A Women’s Champions League tie earlier last month was overshadowed after Arsenal’s Katie McCabe escaped a red card when pulling the hair of Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson, who was breaking up field.
It brought a furious reaction from Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor. “When you are playing football and someone pulls your hair, I don’t know if you’ve been in that position, but it’s not nice at all,” she told reporters. “What is the VAR doing in these games?”
Another incident came in the Europa Conference League this season. Fiorentina and Italy forward Moise Kean was sent off in a 3-0 win against Ukrainian side Polissya Zhytomyr in August when he reacted angrily by launching an elbow at an opposing defender who had pulled his hair and gone unpunished.
Arsenal’s Katie McCabe escaped a red card when pulling the hair of Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson (Alex Davidson – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
What action will be taken at this summer’s World Cup?
Recent history would suggest it will be much the same approach. FIFA’s officials certainly adopted the same stance in the Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain last July, dismissing Joao Neves for tugging on the hair of — yes, you guessed it — Cucurella in the closing stages.
Experienced Australian official Alireza Faghani had missed the incident initially and was advised to oversee a pitchside review, which confirmed Neves’ indiscretion. A straight red card was shown, reducing PSG to 10 men with the game already lost at 3-0.
FIFA will outline their expectations to a recently confirmed roster of officials when meeting for a pre-tournament camp in Miami in early June, but it is hard to foresee a change in the approach to the punishment of hair-pulling.
