Senior officers at the referees association PGMOL have reviewed the incident where Fabinho received a yellow card for Brighton striker Ivan Ferguson on the eve of Sunday’s FA Cup match at the Amex Stadium.
According to Mirror It ruled that the VAR should have intervened and advised referee David Cottet to look at the situation on screen to consider issuing a red card. Neil Swarbrick was the VAR in charge of Sunday’s cup game, and he chose not to.
Ferguson limped off the pitch with an injury, while Fabinho was yellow carded by referee Coote following the incident in the 86th minute of the match.
Fabinho entered the situation with the handles first and hit Ferguson in the achilles area from behind. Having considered the situation, PGMOL believes that VAR should have taken action, as they believe this is a red card for excessively risky play.
He did not blame Brighton boss Fabinho
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi believed Fabinho had not committed the foul on purpose, and thought the situation looked like an accident.
– I don’t like talking about this. I don’t want to talk about this crime anymore. Fabinho is an honest player for sure, but things like this can happen on the pitch. Prigoten’s coach said after the match that this offense was an accident.
– I only saw him once. Maybe we can debate if it was a red card, but Fabinho was about to fall when he hit Ferguson. It wasn’t great right after the match, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said.
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