THE Football Association last night passed up the chance to take action against Jermain Defoe for biting the arm of Javier Mascherano — even though it could have done so with Fifa’s blessing, The Times can reveal.

Steve Bennett, who refereed the Barclays Premiership match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United on Sunday, is understood not to have mentioned the incident in his report, leaving the FA free to impose any sanction it wished without fear of upsetting the world governing body by issuing a retrospective punishment.

Leading referees are dismayed at the message the FA is sending out by not pursuing the case against the striker, fearing a “trickle-down effect” at the lower levels of the game. One refereeing source professed “amazement” at the FA’s decision.

An FA spokesman said it was “unable to take any action because the referee has already dealt with the incident”, but The Times has learnt that Bennett did not report any bite. He showed Defoe a yellow card but only for “aggressive behaviour”, presumably a reference to the grounded player crawling towards the Argentinian angrily after he had been tripped from behind.

Had the referee attributed the booking to the bite, the FA would understandably have felt greater reluctance to take further action as the official would already have dealt with the incident.

The FA signalled the importance with which it viewed the alleged offence by passing over its fast-track disciplinary system and handing the case to its compliance department, which deals with more serious issues. It has been suggested that the FA contacted West Ham yesterday and was told that Mascherano had sustained no lasting damage, prompting it to drop the matter.

However, Tottenham and West Ham still face the possibility of being charged with failing to control their players. The incident prompted a mêlée involving the majority of the 22 players and the clubs will be asked for their observations.

Under pressure from Fifa not to overturn refereeing decisions in order to uphold the integrity of officials, the FA made an exception recently by handing an eight-match ban to Ben Thatcher for elbowing Pedro Mendes, of Portsmouth, even though Dermot Gallagher, the referee, had dealt with the incident by booking the Manchester City defender.

The governing body made the move because the offence was deemed serious enough to warrant more than the three-match suspension that normally follows a dismissal for violent conduct. However, Bennett’s apparent failure to spot Defoe’s bite meant that the FA could have handed out a stiffer penalty even if it felt that the alleged offence deserved a routine three-game ban.

According to Martin Jol, the Tottenham head coach, Defoe admitted to “nibbling” Mascherano’s arm, but yesterday the player attempted to play down the matter. “This has been blown out of all proportion,” Defoe said. “The referee was standing right over me and if he felt I had done anything bad he would have sent me off.

“The incident doesn’t look great on TV and I accept that as a role model to kids I have a responsibility to conduct myself in the right way, which I always try to do on and off the pitch.”

Although Alan Pardew, the West Ham manager, claimed that Mascherano was “fine” and “bears no grudges”, the player himself was less conciliatory. “To receive a bite was the worst thing that has happened to me since I came to England,” he said. “This was unexpected and outrageous.”

A spokesman for Uefa, which holds no jurisdiction over Premiership games, said that it views biting as a serious offence. “It’s a form of physical aggression, just like a head-butt or a punch, and as such has to be treated as violent conduct,” William Gaillard said. “In rugby it’s taken very seriously. We would take into account the amount of damage caused by the aggression.”

Participants in a Times online poll believe that Defoe deserved greater punishment. Asked whether a yellow card was sufficient, 60 per cent said it was not. The FA disagreed.