Red Card or Not: Craig Pawson and Gaston Ramirez
Referee Craig Pawson didn’t have a cracker at Hull v. Tottenham today. I thought he was quite inconsistent, letting things go and then calling the same thing two plays later.
The players were rightly frustrated with him.
But I have to say, I think he got the Gaston Ramirez red card right.
Basically, Ramirez was covering Big Jan Vertonghen (who is, admittedly, just insufferable). After the play ended, Vertonghen pushed Ramirez’ leg away from him.
Ramirez responded by hooking his legs around Vertonghen from behind, bringing him down.
In fact, if you watch the video above closely, he even appears to strike out with his fist at Jan’s backside. (I say ‘appears’, but you can see Vertonghen’s jersey moved; Ramirez definitely hit him.)
That’s pretty clear violent conduct, to me, and Pawson was within his rights to remove Ramirez. Could he have been lenient – particularly given the way he was calling this game? Sure. But that doesn’t mean the call was wrong.
I’m with the referee on this one.
Update: NBC continues to do its American audience a disservice with their coverage of referees. The talking heads are droning on and on about how it wasn’t a red card and it should have been a yellow and it will be overturned. But they’re only showing the front view, not the view I have above where Ramirez clearly strikes out with his fist. You can’t see the arm lash out from the front (which is why the call was made by an AR, and not Pawson, because the AR could see what really happened).
And no, NBC, once FA sees the above that red card and suspension will not be overturned. Sorry.
What do you think?
PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 
Red card for Vertonghen then as well. Your gif only shows half of the episode.
Walking across Gaston for no reason to hold his feet, and deliberately push his knee/leg hard into Gaston’s ass.
FA should be looking into it – but they probably won’t.
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You’re reaching.
Nothing about what Jan did was red cardable by the laws of the game, sorry. Yellow maybe for being a big, mean, hateful oaf (but then he’d get those automatically every game). But it doesn’t excuse striking out at someone with your leg and fist.
You can’t do that. Ever.
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It’s more of a trip than a kick out – Vertonghen goes over because whilst his foot is caught against ramirez’s leg on the floor, the other leg catches his near the knee and pushes it forward and down. Not sure if it’s violent conduct, but at the least it’s serious foul play.
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It’s definitely a trip, and then he swings the arm at Vertonghen’s back, which moves it into violent conduct. He just let the red mist get the better of him…no two ways about it.
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To clarify, serious foul play only applies when a player is challenging another player for the ball, which is definitely not the case here. In this situation, if the referee (or in this case the AR) believes that the kick/trip is made with excessive force, then the offense is Violent Conduct, not serious foul play.
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And i still believe it wasn’t just the kick that Ramirez was punished for but the swing of the arm. And it’s a good point that this all happened well after the play.
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I should say that i had meant to reply to Neil Biggs original comment.
But I totally agree Jenna, the aggressive arm swing adds conviction that the trip was a deliberately malicious act.
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In reality it doesn’t matter per the laws whether it was a kick or a trip, the ball was gone and the player clearly made an attempt, whether you define it as trip or kick, and endangered a player’s safety. That is the definition of a red card. It is the same concept as why an open palm slap is a red card just as a punch would be. The difference will come in the duration of the suspension.
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