A top lawyer today warned Joey Barton that he would change football forever if he sued Bradley Johnson.
The Queens Park Rangers midfielder suggested last night he could take legal action against Johnson or referee Neil Swarbrick after the controversy at Loftus Road on Monday.
Barton is furious he was sent off for allegedly head-butting Johnson and accused the Norwich midfielder of play-acting.
Writing on his Twitter account Barton said: "I wonder how long it is before a football club sues a referee for making bad decisions." He then tweeted: "Or a player sues another player for play-acting. Which is basically a lie that is actionable. What's the difference?"
Matthew Taylor, an associate at Eversheds law firm, believes that a successful claim against a referee would be highly unlikely, mainly because officials should be able to argue they sent a player off without malice or negligence.
However, he thinks Barton might have a case against Johnson but believes it could open the floodgates to copycat cases which would seriously damage the game.
"There would be a very interesting argument for a case of defamation against Johnson," said Taylor. "The repercussions would be dramatic. If clubs and players believed they could go to court for actions on the pitch they would take out insurance policies. These policies would not come cheap and the cost of the game would increase massively. And we can be pretty sure where the ultimate cost would fall, to the turnstiles and the ordinary fans.
"For this reason, I would question whether the courts would want to get involved at all. You would hope Public Policy (which sets out the guidelines for this) would stop that happening."
