FIFA U-17 Championship Ghana vs. Germany 2:3 Not sure whether you had the chance to watch the game (I will try to find a video of the incident) 83rd minute of the game. German forward Konstantin Rausch was being treated for injury, and once he was ready to continue playing, he was given the nod to enter the pitch by the assistant referee. The referee stopped play and showed Rausch a yellow card (this was Rausch's second booking, so he was dismissed). The referee had a short consultation with a bemused-looking assistant, but did not rescind the red card. The German player (imo, rightly) claimed to have been granted permission to enter the pitch by the assistant, but his protests were to no avail and Germany had to play the remainder of the game with 10 men. The Germans held on to win the game. It seems as if there was poor communication between the two officials (there may have been a language barrier, the ref was from El Salvador, the assistant from Korea) to the detriment of the player. Very unfair red card, the German player could appeal his 1 game suspension. Any other opinions, am I being too harsh on the two refs?
unless this duty was given to the ars in the pregame, only the cr can grant permission to enter the pitch. was ar's nod an acknowledgement that he saw the player was ready to reenter or a signal it was ok to reenter? why wasn't the 4th involved? given all the above, if i believed the player was confused about the reentry, i would not give the card.
sounds like a VERY unfortunate mess. We all know only the REF can authorize the player to enter the field, but if I am reffing and have shown a 2nd caution to a player for entering without my permission, and before play is restarted the AR brings my attention to the fact that HE told the player it was ok to go back on the field, I am most definitely rescinding the 2nd caution and the sendoff. It sounds like perhaps the officials were not able to process through all of this because of language barriers. I sure *hope* that is the reason. If it happened as I speculated above and the ref still stuck to his guns with the 2nd caution and sendoff, that wouldn't seem right.
Here is the video from fifa.com http://fifa.com/newscentre/videos/player.html#ch=u17&id=578849 look at about the 2:23 min. The Referee seems to be saying something to the Fourth Official that looks like 'I didn't let him on'. The Fourth Official just stands there. If the Fourth Official let RAUSCH back on the field, he should have said somthing, no? Interesting... Mr. LEE (the Fourth Official) is listed in his official bio on fifa.com with 'Occupation: part-time teacher(english)'. And the Referee Mr. AGUILAR, is listed in his bio with 'Other languages: English'. I would hope that this would not be a issue of miscomunication, but.. one never knows....
It actually looks like the CR mouths "my job" when everyone points at the 4th. Regardless, if the 4th gave him permission, the card shouldn't have been given and this should have been covered in the pre-game.
Thanks for the responses and for providing the link to the video. I agree that it seems as if everyone was confused, but only the player was punished. The referee was maybe a bit too quick to show the yellow card, the German player was not trying to disrupt the game.