Time for change on red card appeals

By Brent Peters, Manager, Bacup Borough

One of the biggest bugbears a manager can have is to lose players through suspension. And, if that suspension comes about through a red card that you think was unfairly issued, that is even more frustrating.

Currently, the rule regarding a straight red card is the same from the top of the game right down to grass roots level – there is no right of appeal. But I feel that is a situation that should be examined and changed, as I think it’s time for the appeals procedure in non-league football to be overhauled where red cards are concerned.

Just before Christmas I set out my case in a letter and sent it to the FA. The points I made were as follows.

The FA say that if there is clear evidence that a Referee has made an error they will review individual decisions. The problem is that they will only consider video footage as evidence to support any claim.

It is my opinion that this is unfair and that the situation should be looked at and changed. In particular, for clubs at our level, I believe there should be a means by which we can appeal against a red card decision. My reasons are as follows.

Taking my own club as an example, we are a Step Five club, and to this end, the chance of us having television cameras around the ground or even amateur video crews will be always be highly unlikely. This obviously counteracts what the FA requires when they ask for video evidence.

If we as a club believe one of our players was unfairly shown a red card, as things stand at the moment we just have to accept it as there is no right of appeal on a straight red card. More significantly, once a player has received one straight red card with no right of appeal, on receipt of further red cards the Football Association add a further match ban onto the offence.

This is a problem as I believe that in non-league football, we have a greater chance of red cards being issued unfairly than at a higher level of football. The simple fact is that being a Step Five club we have little option but to have referee’s appointed to our games who are inexperienced in many ways. That is why they are refereeing at our level, at the beginning of their progression up through the leagues.

I think everyone will agree that even the experienced officials make mistakes, so to that end it should be blatantly obvious that young officials plying their trade will make more mistakes than an experienced official.

This means we are expecting players that are playing at Step Five to compete in games with officials that are less experienced and are more susceptible to making mistakes. A common example of a mistake young officials can make is being positioned incorrectly to call certain decisions. If they have to determine from a poor position whether a player did or did not play the ball when going in for a tackle, a decision to issue a straight red card could be wrong.

I’m not suggesting every decision to issue a straight red card is a wrong one, but you have to look at the situation from a player’s viewpoint. He does not have a right of appeal so if he is on the end of a wrongly called decision, harshly the lad gets banned from football.

Suppose then, the lad returns from being banned, and he then receives another straight red card. Now possibly this time the official does make the correct decision, but due to the fact that the referee got the first one wrong and he does get the second one right, in my opinion the lad gets a double whammy punishment, the lad gets an additional ban.

From a manager’s point of view, it is difficult to attract quality experienced players to drop into the realms of Step Five football from a higher level. The reasons the players will give are the usually the same every time. Better pitches and stadiums the higher one goes will get mentioned, but the match officials always feature too.

Players will say that the higher you go, you get a better quality of official with a better understanding of the game, and a chance to appeal red cards due to the game being videoed or televised. Players know that at Step Five we get less experienced officials more suspect to mistakes, and that there is no right of appeal unless video evidence is available (and what chance is there of that?)

I think there are two options available that would make this situation better for players. Firstly, players should be allowed the right of appeal on a straight red card. If the powers that be do not see it this as being acceptable, then at the very least players should most certainly be able to appeal the extra suspensions added due to previous red cards.”

In my opinion, it should be a player’s divine right to appeal on a red card if that player feels that (a) he made a genuine attempt to win the ball or (b) mitigating circumstances - for instance, a reaction following a racist remark. Within the legal system of our country people or organisations do have the right of an appeal, so why should football be any different?

People might say you could open the floodgates and everyone will appeal a red card. My answer to that would be that the FA should make provisions for an appeal process, but in order to prevent any Tom, Dick or Harry appealing that do not have genuine cases, then the price to appeal should reflect this.

For instance it is currently £ 100, so maybe that figure should go to £125 or £150. The greater the figure, then the less chance clubs or players will appeal unless they feel that they have a stone wall case.

It would also help if red card offences were graded. For instance, should it be that a player gets a red card and rightly so, then that player receives a one, two or three match ban depending on the serious nature of that offence.

Red card categories should come in 1, 2, or 3 depending on how bad the official does see the offence. A real bad offence would carry number 1, a not so bad would carry number 3. Obviously number 1 would be a three match ban whilst number 3 would only be a one match ban.

At least by doing this, at the end of a game following discussions with the referee, it could well be that should the official thinks he may have over reacted by producing the straight red card, then following the points of both sides he marks on his sheet 3 and not 1. OK, the lad does get a ban, but only one game and not three games.

In addition, I’d like to see a situation where the FA does not issue any further bans for players that receive multiple red cards. My reason for saying this is simple - without video evidence, there is a chance that the referee could have made a complete mistake, this being the case it is a bitter pill for the player to swallow when he does receive an extra ban for receiving two reds and one red was wrongly presented.

I am hopeful that there is a chance that these rules will be changed. Mark Ives, Disciplinary Manager at the Football Association, responded to my proposals by letter and although he said there will be no changes to those particular procedures at Step 5/6 this season, he also said the system will be reviewed during the 2009/10 season, taking on board any comments from Step 5 and below, (including my own) as to how the system is working, together with any suggested improvements.

Mark pointed out that the difficulty with removing the video/DVD aspect is that under FIFA guidance, there should be no appeal from red card offences. The FA stance is that where there is “proof” that the Referee has made a serious and obvious error, they would like a system to address this, but without DVD/Video evidence it would be difficult in proving such an error. However, the FA is aware of the issue and plan to look at it over the coming months.

I am sure I am not alone in my views on this, and I hope that others will also take up the issue and put pressure on the FA to come up with a solution. Managing a club at this level of football is hard enough as it is, and anything that makes our lives easier is worth fighting for.

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