Should clubs be allowed to appeal yellow cards?

It needs to be considered that every game counts. At the end of the season those 2 games a player is out for when he receives his 10^th yellow card could make all the difference.

I know people are against all the paperwork, and red tape. They want the game to be without complication like it was traditionally. However, yellow cards cost and in the lower league even at Sunday league football when you receive one have to pay a sum of roughly £7. Notably, there is a chance to appeal the decision too. Surely this should be applied to the football league too. I don’t mind the odd injustice or two actually settling a game. This thought is a matter of common sense.

The job of the FA is to ensure that at the top level everything is being carried out fairly and properly. They have the dubious goals panels, which seems a far less useful spending of time, than whether deciding to rescind yellow cards. It could be enforced, if you could say if the appeal is frivolous the player in question receives a 1 game ban.

This type of ruling may seem harsh but it would stop unnecessary appeals, and correct blatantly wrong decisions. There are often yellow cards which are up for debate; this is not for them or for players who display clear dissent. The intention is to rescind harsh decisions where a referee has genuinely got it wrong. This is not again to heap pressure on referees and to scrutinise their every move, but essentially they make decisions in the heat of the moment which costs clubs. The system would be most useful for when a player’s first yellow card in a sending off was accurate, but the second yellow card was unfair. The FA could in this case rescind the inaccurate 1 yellow and the player can be eligible for selection the next game.

I think rather than sending out a message that challenging everything is ok, this further adds clout to the FA’s integrity. If they are at the very highest level doing all they can to ensure a clean game, then people can take any new schemes they carry out more carefully. I think within this initiative of being able to look and appeal yellow cards, the FA should also have the licence to review the challenges or incidents. The FA can look at a yellow card and be able to instantly turn them into a red card. The added bonus of this is it means that the FA has licence to immediately review decisions off the ball and insert punishments, avoiding such a fuss being made as it was in the Luis Suarez and Evra case, both playing for Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. It means that the FA have more time to react to any backlash from fans and they can then have further clarity over what to do in retrospective decisions.

Ultimately, in a time where the FA are being challenged for struggling to handle huge decisions, both on and off the ball, ensuring an appeals system for yellow cards can give them back the control they desperately need. It also provides comfort for the fans that everything is being done to avoid ludicrous scenarios where players shouldn’t be booked occurring. You often hear fans moaning a referee has it in for our team, which add unnecessary pressure to the officials. This culture would be lessened if fans knew that their player would have their card rescinded and the clubs would be happy to run through the extra paperwork.

Follow @GrantMilesFF