Changing your mind on card colour

[Trip]

This happened to me on Saturday.

Very wet conditions, a lot of sliding tackles, nothing naughty, and a relaxed match. A sliding tackle goes in, one-footed, studs showing, arrives late, some contact, player stays on his feet. The defender apologises immediately.

I issue a caution. No significant protest from either team. Then the player who's been tackled shows me his shin. He's been caught much higher up than I thought (about half way up the shin) and is bleeding. The injury definitely makes it look like a red. His teammates start demanding a dismissal. Play has not restarted.

Do you change your mind?

 

[OnlyUseMeWhistle]

This happened to me on Saturday.

Very wet conditions, a lot of sliding tackles, nothing naughty, and a relaxed match. A sliding tackle goes in, one-footed, studs showing, arrives late, some contact, player stays on his feet. The defender apologises immediately.

I issue a caution. No significant protest from either team. Then the player who's been tackled shows me his shin. He's been caught much higher up than I thought (about half way up the shin) and is bleeding. The injury definitely makes it look like a red. His teammates start demanding a dismissal. Play has not restarted.

Do you change your mind?

Stick with the original call imo, you don’t know for sure the tackle was lower and then forced up by the contact or that the impact wasn’t from something else for sure. Call what you see

 

[JamesL]

Punish the action, not the outcome..

If you want to see the outcome to confirm the action as severe as thought no worry, delay the card, but what you saw was a YC action, that's the punishment.

Outcome can be misleading, a fair challenge can break a leg. Doesn't make it not a fair challenge if that is indeed what the action was.

 

[wazztie16]

I've had this out with some level 3 and 4s who seem to want cards based on outcome.

I don't agree.

Go with what you see when the tackle comes in.

To add, I've played in a charity match where a tackle came in that no one even thought was a foul.
Player on the recieving end didn't get back up until the ambulance arrived and took him away.
Broken leg.

Annoyingly, only 7 minutes into the game, and I was on holiday for the rematch.

Which we ended up losing.

Cool story bra, I know...

 

[Desciple3011]

For me I go to my 1st instinct so lets say Yellow keep saying yellow to yourself taking in reaction of player who was fouled other players and look at assistant referee if neutral to see if they have anything to add. If at end of incident when things have settled down you are still saying yellow then issue the yellow card. If however it gets heated possible mas con etc then your thoughts might turn from yellow to red. However once you have issued a card regardless of Y/R then for me once it is given you need to stay with that decision otherwise your match control will be lost and every decision will invariably have comments like are you sure / do you want to change your mind. Nice phrase to sum decisions up WHEN WRONG BE STRONG

 

[Big Cat]

I've had incidents involving an instinctive 'yellow card prolonged whistle'. I've then doubted the sanction, but I've now settled on always sticking with what my whistle indicated is about to happen next, rather than be seduced by subsequent doubts

 

[Martiju]

Go with what you see when the tackle comes in.

To add, I've played in a charity match where a tackle came in that no one even thought was a foul.
Player on the recieving end didn't get back up until the ambulance arrived and took him away.
Broken leg.

Completely with you on this. I've had one in the past where it was 100% a careless foul - very very minor contact that caused a trip. Unfortunately the player who went down I think suffered a dislocation so was in terrible pain and an ambulance was called. Players and managers were calling for red - the reality was it wasn't even a justifiable caution.

 

[socal lurker]

Completely with you on this. I've had one in the past where it was 100% a careless foul - very very minor contact that caused a trip. Unfortunately the player who went down I think suffered a dislocation so was in terrible pain and an ambulance was called. Players and managers were calling for red - the reality was it wasn't even a justifiable caution.

Sometimes that caution protects the player you give it to from retaliation . . .

 

[Martiju]

Sometimes that caution protects the player you give it to from retaliation . . .

Completely agree that can be the case. However, it would have been wholly unjustified to give it so I think would have just raised other problems.

 

[RustyRef]

Your first instinct will usually be correct, if you start going on injuries you are likely to talk yourself into the wrong decision. Think back to the Son on Gomes challenge that badly broke his ankle, Martin Atkinson got the yellow out and then changed it to red after he had seen Gomes's foot pointing the wrong way. A red card that was overturned on appeal.