Player trips his own teammate – but the booking still stands
Hearts boss Ian Cathro says the referee has apologised for wrongly booking Malaury Martin in their Scottish Premiership win at Motherwell.
The midfielder was punished after two Motherwell players tripped one another up.
Cathro tells Sky Sports News that Martin’s booking can’t be rescinded, as mistaken identity only exists for team-mates.
WATCH
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) February 7, 2017
Ian Cathro took a phone call from referee Andrew Dallas, who accepted his error in booking Malaury Martin. https://t.co/Or8NUC9bUL
Hearts released a statement saying they would seek a rule-change.
“Following discussions with the club’s legal advisors and various officials at the SFA, it is clear however that the current rules as they stand, do not cover this specific situation.
“Put quite simply, we cannot appeal on the grounds of “Mistaken Identity” as the referee did not mistakenly identify our player. He believed the offence was committed by Malaury.
“The fact that it was not a foul and that the Motherwell player merely tripped over the feet of his own player, means that while it may have been an error to give the foul and to book our player, it was not a case of mistaken identity.
“The Referee did not mistake Malaury for another Hearts player, which is the only situation that would allow an appeal to be successful in the case of “Mistaken Identity”.
“Nor can the yellow be rescinded by Referee Dallas as the rules do not allow for this. N.B. Yellow cards can only be appealed in Scotland on two grounds, “simulation” and “mistaken identity”.
“The club is going to pursue a potential rule change at the earliest opportunity so that common sense can prevail in the future and no other player or club suffers a similar fate.”
