Leeds United should not have had to face Brentford without Gabriel Gudmundsson, a Premier League officating panel has unanimously agreed.
For the second time in a fortnight the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel has unanimously agreed that Leeds were the victims of a refereeing error. Earlier in March it emerged that the KMI panel reviewed the decision to deny the Whites a spot-kick for a challenge by Luke O’Nien on Pascal Struijk at Elland Road, in a game Leeds lost 1-0 to Sunderland. And now the BBC reports that the same panel agreed with Daniel Farke again, this time over Thomas Bramall’s decision to show Gudmundsson a second yellow and subsequent red at Selhurst Park.
Gudmundsson’s challenge on Ismaila Sarr saw him dismissed for a second bookable offence, though Farke was adamant after the game that the challenge was not worthy of a yellow. It was clear in the moment that Bramall had also forgotten he had already booked Gudmundsson in the first half and had to be reminded before he produced the red. The KMI panel have reported said that there was ‘minimal contact’ in a challenge that was ‘careless and not clearly reckless.’ Down to 10 men, Leeds had to defend on the back foot for almost the entire second half before settling for a 0-0 draw. Without Gudmundsson they struggled to create chances, particularly down the left flank, in their next outing against Brentford, another 0-0 stalemate.
VAR is not able to review second yellow cards as it stands, but that will change next season when they will be able to ask referees to take another look at clearly wrong second bookings.
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