I'm not, it was a very clear attempt to delay the restart, even Rice himself admitted that and said he deserved to be sent off. That said, the independent panel have made some bizarre decisions in the past so perhaps I should be surprised.Well I’m not as ‘amazed’ as Arteta but surprised the five person panel unanimously backed the Rice second yellow.
Arsenal: Declan Rice red card was correct, KMI panel rules
Referee Chris Kavanagh was right to send Declan Rice off in Arsenal's draw with Brighton, the Key Match Incidents panel rules.www.bbc.co.uk
Rice red card
- Thread starter Ori
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My surprise is not that a referee forum is fairly unanimous, but that not one of the ‘football’ panel thought ‘it’s not what football expects’, too soft a second yellow etc.
Football expected it for it to be proactively dealt with before it happened, but once it wasn’t, for me and many it wasn’t too soft simply because Rice knew what he was doing and why he did it. From that point, a 2nd yellow was always likely to happen.
The only pundits I've heard saying it was wrong have been Martin Keown, who will vehemently challenge any decision that goes against Arsenal, and Graeme Souness who is well known for going against the norm to stay relevant. I've heard plenty of other pundits say it was an absolutely correct decision.