Bernardo Silva has avoided a retrospective ban for diving after an FA panel reviewed his penalty award against Burnley.

No Premier League player has yet been hit by a two-match suspension under new rules this season.

The three-man panel, which also looked at the penalty which Richarlison won for Watford against Arsenal, needed to decide there was “a clear and obvious case of simulation”.

Carlisle's Shaun Miller became the first player in English football to be retrospectively banned last week after winning a penalty against Wycombe in Sky Bet League Two game.

The Manchester City midfielder won the penalty after going down under a challenge from Burnley keeper Nick Pope during his side’s 3-0 win at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Burnley’s players claimed Silva dived to win the spot-kick.

That led FA’s on-field governance team to look at the incident.

In such cases, there has to be ‘a clear and obvious case of simulation’ for a player to be banned, and the fact there was contact - albeit minimal - between Silva and Pope was always likely to see the City midfielder let off without charge.

Keeper Pope makes contact with the player before he went down (
Image:
2017 Getty Images)
And that decision led to an on-field disagreement between the players (
Image:
2017 Getty Images)

Burnley boss Sean Dyche was sceptical of the penalty decision and said of Silva: “For him to get that high off the floor with his arms above his head is almost a skill in itself. I was quite impressed with how far he travelled.

“If I kicked my kid in the garden, I don’t think he’d fall like that, so it was a moment where there has to be a bit of honour within the game where you go ‘OK, he has caught me, but it’s not enough’.”

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