Let me set the stage here..... Game in the 88th minute. Home team down 6-2. Home team only called for 3 fouls all game. Two players go for ball, with visiting team player getting his leg broken. No foul called, but yellow card issued to home team player. Injured player immediately attended to on field by medical staff. Whistle blown to end game. After game is over, official comes up to home team player initially issued a yellow, and is told that he must change it to a red card. Question, is this allowed? We've got an on-going debate with this one. Thanks!
Allowed? Cards must be issued before the play is next restarted. As play has not been restarted, if the CR has received information from one of is AR's and they were "Federation" AR's with no connection to either team (ie not acting as club assistants) and the CR accepts the information that merits the red card, then it would be allowed. Unless additional information has been attained to support the change from yellow to red, I do not think the card should be "upgraded" just because of the injury.
Lisa, I imagine this took place during a Flames match. It is highly unusal and inappropriate for a card to be rescinded and upgraded to a send off following the completion of the match. The only scenario where I have seen this is where the referee initially issues a caution and upon conferring with his assistants prior to the restart of play, changes the caution to a send off. However, this must happen prior to the restart of play. By his issuing a send off after the match is over invites a protest from the team. The prudent thing is for the referee to note in his match report that he made a mistake in his inital handling of the caution and that serious foul play was involved and ask the disciplinary committee to make a determination based upon the information contained in the referee's report. This might be based on miscommunication between the officiating crew. Anyway you look at it it's going to to be problematic for the crew.
It is not clear that the game was called during the injury, which occured in the 88th minute or if the game was restarted in between. Either way, the answer is NO, you cannot change a card after the game has ended. A decision can be changed only till the next restart but what is the restart at the end of the game? I say when the whistle is sounded to end the game and players begin to leave the field, that constitutes the restart and locks in the previous decisions. If not we will have caos about disputed calls as the games end. That was always my concern with the "golden goal" procedure for tie-breakers. However, if the yellow should have been a red, that can still be put in the game report, along with the reason for the change. The league can still upgrade the punishment if they wish but it is now out of the referee's hands.
If a card was issued, there probably was a foul called. I can see the logic, though not the legality of changing the card. Issuing a yellow then having game NEVER start up again, they offender doesn't get any punishment at all. Though changing to red seems strange. Its more likely that the CR got additional info from an AR.
The game was never restarted. The CR whistled it over while the player was still down and we were waiting on the ambulance. Regarding the foul - I would imagine that one was called, but it was never whistled....everyone rushed to the injured player.
Its possible that after assessment of the severity of the injury, the referee determined that "excessive force" better described the foul than "reckless." I once had a Fifa referee (retired) tell me that any "card" foul that causes injury should be red - by definition if it caused injury, it involved excessive force. I'm leery of blanket statements, so I kinda use that more of a "guideline," to quote a recent pirate flick......
Clarification..... I just spoke to the player in question, and he told me that he was notified of the change before the whistle was blown to end the game. So, my initial question is now mute. Sorry to have brought it up.