Former Premier League referee Peter Walton has explained why David Luiz’s red card and suspension has been upheld despite Southampton defender Jan Bednarek earning a reprieve for what appeared a similar incident.
Arsenal fans were confused on Thursday when Luiz’s appeal for his red card against Wolves at Molineux was unsuccessful but Bednarek did have his dismissal and suspension chalked off after Saints challenged the decision.
Luiz was dismissed during Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at Wolves on Tuesday as he clumsily clipped the heels of Willian Jose while trying to get back into position. Having reviewed the incident, VAR supported referee Craig Pawson's decision to award a penalty and send off the Brazilian.
Bednarek received his marching orders at Manchester United as was also caught the wrong side of an attacker, in this case Anthony Martial, who went to ground after minimal and largely unintentional contact.
Speaking on BT Sport, Walton indicated the reason Luiz’s sending off and one-match ban stood was because he was “careless” in his actions, whereas the appeal panel would may have taken into account Martial going to ground too easily in reviewing the Bednarek case.
“Everyone in football knows that’s a red card,” said Walton, a top-flight referee from 2003 until 2012, of the Luiz decision.
“What’s happened in Luiz has gone through the play, he hasn’t slowed up, his momentum, he’s caught him, he’s gone over – it’s a penalty kick.
“He’s been clumsy, or as the law says, he’s been careless in his actions in clipping his heels as he goes through. So the referee had no option at all but to award a penalty kick and because he’s made no attempt on the ball, it’s a red card offence.
“The other one, in Bednarek, what’s happened there is the referee Mike Dean has seen contact on Martial, he goes over and gives the penalty kick.
“For VAR to intervene, the VAR is looking for elements to justify that particular decision. He sees it as the contact and so therefore doesn’t have that clear evidence to afford Mike Dean to say, ‘no, it’s not a penalty kick.
“In fact, Mike Dean goes over to the monitor there; not to see if it was a foul but to make sure he got the sanction correct because Bednarek had made no attempt on the ball.
“However, when you fast forward to the commission, they have a slightly different agenda to the referee and the VAR.
“The commissions can add in the contact, the context of the so-called foul and any other mitigating circumstances, such as, ‘was the forward actually off-balance is going over?’
“It’s only a wrong decision because the commission allow the appeal to succeed. As a referee I still think Mike Dean was correct; there is contact there and if there is contact, in his opinion, he gives the foul.
“Who’s to know how much contact there is to make Martial fall over? From a pure refereeing angle, I’d support that decision. But the commission have other options to gauge themselves with.”
