The Premier League has updated its refereeing guidance, confirming that from 2026-27 hair-pulling will no longer automatically mean a red card. The league said referees will be given greater discretion over such incidents.
Under the new instructions, a dismissal will apply only when the hair pull is a clear and deliberate act carried out with excessive force or brutality. Voluntary but non-violent offences will now draw a yellow card.
The change is intended to give officials more scope where players inadvertently catch an opponent’s hair.
The clarification follows a series of contentious sendings-off last season. Lisandro Martinez, Michael Keane and Dan Ballard were all shown red after VAR interventions for hair-pulling.
Martinez’s dismissal, for pulling the hair of Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, angered his manager Michael Carrick, who called it one of the worst decisions he had ever seen.
