Leandro Trossard and a ridiculous loophole in the red card that needs to be closed

Leandro Trossard was Arsenal’s hero on Saturday. He scored in the first half and then forced a dramatic goal in stoppage time, with his shot deflecting off Leicester City’s Wilfred Ndidi for an own goal. That put Arsenal 3-2 ahead and on course for victory.

But there is a legitimate question as to whether Trossard should have been on the field at all.

No, this has nothing to do with a controversial refereeing decision; he had not kicked the ball away after a whistle earlier in this match. Instead, it’s all to do with one of English football’s quirkiest and perhaps most nonsensical rules.

Trossard was sent off last weekend for receiving two bookings during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City. That earned him a one-match suspension, but it was not served in the Premier League. Instead, Trossard was ruled out for Arsenal’s Carabao Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers.

Leandro Trossard is sent off against Manchester City (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

It is a peculiarity of the suspension rules that if Arsenal had not played in the Carabao Cup last week, Trossard would have missed Leicester’s match in the Premier League instead.

This is not about the fairness or otherwise of the decision to send Trossard to the Etihad, but whether his sentence should be served in another competition, especially one in which Arteta felt able to make eight changes to his starting team. Bolton – currently 14th in League One – were still comfortably beaten 5-1.

Actually, it’s all a bit ridiculous. In the simplest terms, in English football, red cards are handed out for the next match or matches that the player is scheduled to play. So if someone is sent off in an FA Cup match and given a one-match suspension, but their next match is in the Premier League, they will miss the league match. And vice versa.

However, the same does not apply to suspensions due to yellow cards. If a player accumulates five Premier League bookings, he must serve that suspension in the Premier League. Ditto in the headings; two yellows in the FA Cup will result in a one-match FA Cup suspension that cannot be served during a league match.

This has produced a number of remarkable examples in recent years. Last season, Manchester United’s Amad was sent off after his late extra-time winner against Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals, but was cleared to play in the semi-final against Coventry City as he served his Premier League suspension against Brentford. in the meantime.

The season before, Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope missed the Carabao Cup final at Wembley after being sent off against Liverpool in the Premier League a week earlier.

Nick Pope missed the 2023 League Cup final due to this red card he received against Liverpool (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Conversely, Bruno Guimaraes, who had been sent off for a straight red in Newcastle’s semi-final win over Southampton, played in the final. He had served all three matches of his suspension in the competition, as there was almost a month between the semi-final and the final.

This does not relate to the details of Guimaraes’ case, but if a player helps his team secure passage to a cup final through a late red card, for example for deliberately pushing an opposition player through a goal foul, his punishment should certainly be missing the penalty. final?

Likewise, if – a la Trossard – a player is sent off in what has been the biggest Premier League game of the season so far, he is not exactly adequately punished by missing an easy Carabao Cup match against an opponent from the lower competition, for which they may well be equipped.

The rule also applies to different seasons. Mateo Kovacic was sent off in the 2020 FA Cup final for Chelsea, leaving him suspended for the first match of the following Premier League season.

It all feels very messy. There is no crossover with European competitions: suspensions earned in Champions League, Europa League or Conference League matches must be served in UEFA competitions, while FIFA is the same for their tournaments.

In Europe they do it differently. In Germany, bans are only imposed in the competition in which the player earned his suspension. Ditto Italy and Spain. And the same goes for all seasons: the last red card in a Copa del Rey final came in 2016 when Javier Mascherano was sent off during Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Sevilla. The next match for which he was suspended was Barcelona’s next Copa del Rey match, in the last 32 against Hercules the following season.

Javier Mascherano is sent off to Barcelona in the 2016 Copa del Rey final (Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)

Andres Iniesta also missed the Hercules match as he reached the yellow card limit by picking up one in the final last May.

Real Madrid were kicked out of the Copa del Rey in 2015/2016 for not knowing the rules; their winger Denis Cheryshev played and scored for Real against Cadiz in their opening cup match that season in November 2015, but Cheryshev had earned a third yellow of the competition while on loan to Villarreal the previous season, most notably in their semi-final defeat to Barcelona . He was due a one-match suspension, but Real did not realize this and was expelled.

There are other strange quirks to this rule, such as Nottingham Forest’s Nikola Milenkovic being suspended for the first league match of the season after being sent off for Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia last April. He had made four Serie A appearances after being sent off, but that was put into effect because he had moved to a new country.

Confusing? Yes.

But in England, the added complication of serving a red card in various competitions feels like something that could be made a lot easier.

(Top photo: Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)