Chris Foy says Chris Kavanagh was right to send off Balbuena but not punish Coufal v Chelsea
Chris Kavanagh’s decision to send off West Ham defender Fabian Balbuena caused controversy but Chris Foy believes he made the right call.
The former Premier League referee said that the ‘challenge’ fit the criteria of dangerous play and excessive force, suggesting it was clear what Kavanagh had to do.
Foy added a similar incident, when Vladimir Coufal connected with Antonio Rudiger after following through with a clearance, was less clear cut, so did not warrant a dismissal.
Foy told the Daily Mail, “In real time Chris Kavanagh didn’t see the challenge by Fabian Balbuena on Ben Chilwell but VAR Peter Bankes does check it and feel it’s worthy of sanction.
“He suggests Chris go to the review area and when Chris looks at the challenge, he’s asking himself is there excessive force and has the West Ham player endangered the safety of an opponent? In both cases I think it’s clear that the answer is yes.
“Referees are there to look after the welfare of the players.
“There was a challenge a few minutes later by Vladimir Coufal on Antonio Rudiger which people were saying was similar, but it wasn’t clear-cut.”
What is he on about?
If referees are going to send off players for kicking the ball then they really have lost the plot.
How can playing a long ball forward be deemed ‘excessive force’ in any way shape or form?
If that is the case then we could see several red cards in every game – the Coufal incident later on in the match shows that.
Surely there also has to be intent in such a challenge too.
Chilwell did suffer a sore kick on his calf but in almost every game there is a clash of heads or a coming together that causes pain – are they going to be red cards in future too?
For Foy to back up a former colleague is just desperate. He is in a minority of one and if improvement is to be made we all need to acknowledge when mistakes are made.
In other West Ham news, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer were dumbstruck over inconsistency in West Ham v Chelsea.