Hands off, Sergio Aguero — at a minimum, touch of lineswoman should have been carded

If you know nothing else about soccer, you probably still know that it’s the game where you can’t use your hands.

In the English Premier League, since 2016, that’s included any touching of officials, no matter how slight, when taking issue with a call. When that announcement was made, the illustrative photo was a player placing his hand on an official’s shoulder.

“Physical contact with any match official will now result in a yellow card,” they said.

So, with that in mind, here’s Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero on Saturday, grabbing a lineswoman to protest her having awarded a throw-in to Arsenal:

Was this necessarily a sexist act? It was called out as such:

Would Aguero have done this if the official had been a man? Would he have gotten away with that, without the prescribed yellow card, if it had been?

We can’t answer any of those questions with certainty, other than to say it doesn’t look good. What we know for sure is that Aguero was not carded for his clear violation of Premier League rules.

And that’s enough to make you wanna throw your hands up.