FA shares update on Jarell Quansah’s red card appeal following Folarin Balogun incident
The Football Association (FA) has shared an update after there were talks about appealing Jarell Quansah’s red card, which he got during England’s round of 16 game against Mexico.
Even though Thomas Tuchel’s team fought hard in a lively Mexico City Stadium to secure a spot in the exciting quarter-final against Norway, the win was slightly spoiled by Quansah’s red card and the one-match ban that came with it. The Bayer Leverkusen defender was sent off in the 54th minute after a high tackle on Jesus Gallardo.
Usually, teams accept suspensions like this. But recently, FIFA paused USA forward Folarin Balogun’s 12-month suspension following a red card in their round of 32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Balogun was supposed to miss the next game against Belgium, but after former President Donald Trump contacted FIFA, the decision was reviewed.
On July 5, FIFA announced that Balogun could play, referring to a rule in their Disciplinary Code. FIFA said they would watch him closely for a year, and if he commits a similar foul again during that time, the suspension would go back into effect.
The Belgian Football Association were very surprised by this and tried to appeal, but UEFA spoke out strongly against FIFA’s decision, calling it unfair and unacceptable. However, FIFA’s Appeals Committee rejected Belgium’s appeal, saying Belgium wasn’t officially involved in the case and couldn’t appeal the ruling.
On July 6, it was reported that the FA was thinking about whether to appeal Quansah’s red card. The FA told The Independent, “We are considering our options regarding any appeal following Jarell Quansah’s red card in Mexico City last night.”
After the match, Tuchel said he didn’t think Quansah should have been sent off. He explained that during the game, the referee didn’t even call a foul, and the decision only came after VAR got involved. Tuchel said watching still images isn’t the right way to make decisions in football and feels the decision was unfair. He added that Quansah was very upset about it, and the team felt the call put them at a disadvantage.
Tuchel also clarified that it wasn’t AI technology that made the red card decision, but people deciding when to overturn calls, which he finds confusing. He hopes for more consistency in these decisions.
Meanwhile, France has asked FIFA to cancel the yellow card given to Michael Olise during their round of 16 match against Paraguay.