The rule needs changing mind, as does the ludicrous punishment, but doesn't excuse Ballard's naivety or the striker behaving like he had been decapitated.Hair pulling is definitely a red card offence. However, Ballard is holding him off and grabbing his shirt but his hair is long and goes down his back and gets caught in the shirt and hand grip. Ballrd doesn't pull it. It's just shit refereeing/VAR or the shittest rule they've introduced in awhile as you can just have long hair and win fouls all the time now.
Multiple times in the last 3 weeks I've watched defenders blatantly hauling down a breaking attacker knowing they'll only get a yellow