Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has said that Gavin Ward was wrong to send Pontus Jansson off in the Championship game against Stoke on Saturday.
Talking on Sky Sports, he said that Ward actually gave the yellow card for a handball, not a foul.
The host said to Gallagher, “Jansson was shown a second yellow card for appearing to do nothing more than fall over. Pick the bones out of that.”
However, Gallagher said the referee had sent him for handball, adding, “I don’t think it’s handball. If you let him go on, you let him go on.”
Asked if it was the wrong decision, Gallagher said “I think so”, while Danny Mills said it was a “ridiculous decision”.
The video clip was uploaded to Twitter by a disgruntled Leeds fan.
Ref watch against @PJansson5 red card #lufc @apopey @PhilHayYEP @NoelDavidWhelan pic.twitter.com/UvpLeHVXsF
— Harry (@H_chapman17) January 21, 2019
OPINION
This is one of the strangest sendings off you’ll ever see and it left Leeds fans rightly fuming. Jansson is a really important player for them and they’ll now be without him for a game – with no right of appeal as it was a yellow card – against Rotherham at the weekend. As it was pointed out, all he did was fall over and even if the ball struck his hand, it was accidental. We agree with Gallagher and we’d go as far as Mills by saying it was ridiculous. There should be a right to appeal for all sendings off, whether they come from a straight red or two yellows. Either way a club can lose a player for something completely wrong if the ref makes a mistake – as he clearly did here. Why should Leeds suffer from someone else’s incompetence? Luckily for Leeds it looks like Gaetano Berardi could be fit enough to make his return and deputise for the missing Jansson on Saturday.