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The Football Association has charged Jack Wilshere with making an offensive gesture in the direction of the Manchester City fans on Saturday, an incident that was caught with retrospective television work. Wilshere has until 6 PM on Wednesday to respond to the charge; if found guilty, as he certainly will be, he will likely face a two-match ban, a length similar to bans that Luis Suarez got for making an offensive gesture and Wayne Rooney got for yelling an obscenity down a camera.
The whole thing is incredibly stupid. Obviously, it's a minor thing, but given that it has led to bans in the past, Wilshere, as a professional athlete, should better control his emotions, no matter how poorly things were going. On the other hand, the FA caring about this is incredibly anal. Also, nice to see that television work can be used to catch someone flipping someone off, but not catching Yaya Toure making a studs up tackle on Olivier Giroud. And the FA want to be taken seriously.