Ossie Ardiles has slammed Craig Pawson’s decision to send Heung-min Son off in Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Son received a straight red card for pushing Jefferson Lerma to the ground, in what appeared to be a very harsh decision by the referee.
Ardiles believes that Pawson should have only shown Son a yellow card, and has also shared that he noticed Lerma provoking Son and treading on him during the incident.
“Very disappointing afternoon for us yesterday. Son red card, a mistake. Yellow would have been enough. It was Lerma provoking Son (In fact from the start of the game). Lerma treads on Son, who reacts, but no way is that violent conduct,” the Spurs legend said via his personal Twitter account on Sunday morning.
Very dissapointing afternoon for us yesterday. Son red card, a mistake. Yellow would have been enough. It was Lerma provoking Son (In fact from the start of the game). Lerma treads on Son, who reacts, but no way is that violent conduct… COYS
— osvaldo ardiles (@osvaldooardiles) May 5, 2019
OPINION
Regardless of whether or not Lerma provoked Son, the South Korea international still shoved the Bournemouth player to the ground and that deserved some kind of punishment by Pawson. However sending Son off was completely the wrong decision and as Ardiles says, a yellow card would have sufficed. Pushing and shoving happens all the time in football but for some reason, this incident resulted in a player being sent off. Son hardly pushed Lerma in the face or very hard, the Cherries player just threw himself to the ground like he had been hit by a car. The FA need to stamp out this kind of simulation because players nowadays only need to feel contact before they go down. They’ll keep doing it until the referees and the FA stop acting as if it is fine to do it. Hopefully Son’s red card will be rescinded or at the very least have his ban cut down because at the moment, the Spurs forward faces missing the start of next season.