UPDATE: Appeal Rejected
The red card appeal has been rejected. The Match Review Panel has upheld the initial one match ban and added an additional week, suspending Matthew Foschini’s for two weeks. He will miss this weekends clash with Central Coast Mariners and the next home game against Perth Glory.
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Melbourne Victory Football Club released a statement today saying that they have appealed the red card given to Matthew Foschini in the 37th minute during the Brisbane Roar match on Saturday night.
The statement read:
The club’s opinion is that there was an obvious error in the issue of a red card and that Matthew’s challenge on Brisbane’s Thomas Broich was not one that “endangered the safety of an opponent” as was stipulated in the match report.
Director of Football, Francis Awaritefe said he was hopeful that Foschini will be cleared to play against the Central Coast this weekend:
Having reviewed the incident from all available angles we believe there is clear evidence of an error in the issue of a straight red card. We’ve lodged our submission to the FFA and remain hopeful that the red card received by Matthew Foschini will be rescinded.
The outcome of the appeal is expected to be known by tomorrow afternoon once it has been reviewed by the FFA.
Melbourne Victory News 24/7
To keep it short this time:
1. The challenge looked worse than it was.
2. Maximum yellow card.
3. Victory were already a man down.
4. The red card meant that Victory would be TWO MEN DOWN for over 1 HOUR of play.
5. Ruined potentially the best game of the season.
Ben Williams has been against Victory for many seasons and he showed it again on Saturday. Referees that do such things take the “Beautiful” out of “The Beautiful Game”. He really ruined it with such a descision that destroyed the spirit of the match. I would not be suprissed if someone told me the ref was helping Brisbane Roar to acheive the highest unbeaten streak in the history of any Australian football code, because I can assure you, even with 10 men on the pitch, we would have won that match by 3 goals to 1. UP VICTORY!!!