‘I’ll tell you what’: Darren Bent shocked after hearing news coming out of Liverpool this weekend

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Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has been handed a big £100,000 fine and an extra one-match ban after his sending off.

The Reds defender was hoping to just miss the Aston Villa game after being shown a red against Newcastle. The Dutchman berated officials as he left the pitch at the time and it’s now come back to bite him after he admitted a charge.

And according to TalkSPORT’s Darren Bent, the FA have now set a dangerous precedent.

Darren Bent questions FA logic behind Virgil van Dijk fine and ban

Speaking live on on TalkSPORT’s Drive show with Andy Goldstein last night, Bent was quick to bring up the Van Dijk story.

And while he didn’t denounce the punishment as unfair, Bent did question the severity of it and questioned whether that means going forward, most red cards will be met with similar bans and fines.

“I’ll tell you what they have done now though. They’ve set a precedent. That means that next time someone gets sent off and kicks off or loses it a bit, the punishment’s going to have to be the same isn’t it? £100,000 fine,” Bent said.

Van Dijk will now miss the next Liverpool game which sees them take on Wolves next weekend.

The big defender is currently away on international duty though, so match fitness from missing a few games shouldn’t be too much of a factor.

Big decisions looming

It’s a valid point by Darren Bent, this.

Yes, the way Van Dijk went off and acted probably did deserve a bit of extra punishment. But Bent is right in that the FA will now need to look at most cases and if there’s anything similar, then the same punishment will need to follow.

Van Dijk being missing for Liverpool is always a loss. And through the season, we could well see further players getting similar punishments.