West Ham have won their appeal against Cheikhou Kouyate's red card in their FA Cup fifth-round win at Blackburn. Kouyate, 26, was sent off by referee Jonathan Moss for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity when bringing down Rovers defender Adam Henley during West Ham's 5-1 win at Ewood Park. The decision and one-match ban was overturned by an independent FA regulatory commission. The midfielder can now play against Sunderland on Saturday
As somebody who sees Rugby League video referees get decisions wrong on an almost weekly basis after seeing half a dozen replays, I would question the credibility of video referral. Also, the referral system in cricket is so mistrusted that it is not used in India and the margin of error allowed is ridiculous – Hawkeye shows half the ball is hitting the stumps so the decision is “umpire’s call” and the batsman is not out because that was the original on-field decision. When video replay first started in American Football, the stoppages were excessive and the decisions were so often wrong that its use has now been severely limited. Yet they still managed to get it wrong right at the start of Superbowl 50! If they had off-field timing in football, the game would take fifty per cent longer to play. In a supposed 90 minute football match, there are only around 60 minutes of playing time because the clock does not stop when the ball is not in play. The overpaid prima donnas would be arguing that they should be paid fifty per cent more. I knew that would be rescinded on appeal. That ball had long gone, so there was no goal scoring opportunity. That was just bad refereeing, which is why there is an appeal system. The referee should get a ban.
Agree with most of that QM. The recent Rugby World Cup highlighted the negatives of the video ref for all to see. So many wrong calls and influencing the on pitch official to sin bin players. Only Nigel Owens had the balls to stand up to the video ref and was rightly given the final. In the Wales game last night Barnes gave a penalty to Wales who booted down the field. They trooped down the field to take the lineout and then Barnes gets a call in his ear to tell him there was a previous infringement by Wales and gives the french the penalty. Garbage.
Precisely. And in some games that could cost a team a fortune. Rescinding the red card, and even banning the ref, does not help one bit if the decision cost a team a place in the next round, or swung a play off final, for example
