No surprise
Prendergast expected dismissal of Shaw’s red card appeal
Published:Wednesday | July 26, 2023 | 12:09 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
EVEN BEFORE Jamaica learned that their appeal against striker Khadija Shaw’s red card and suspension had been dismissed, FIFA referee instructor Peter Prendergast knew the odds were against the Caribbean Women’s World Cup side.
Shaw was sent off in second-half stoppage time for a second yellow card during their historic 0-0 draw with France in their Group F opener, which resulted in their first point in Women’s World Cup history. That point came at a cost, with Shaw unavailable for their second group game against Panama on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, JFF women’s committee chairperson and head of delegation, Elaine Walker-Brown, had confirmed that the staff filed the appeal within the 24-hour time period, which FIFA received.
“The technical staff prepared the report and made some clippings to show on what grounds we were appealing. It was sent off to FIFA, FIFA acknowledged receipt and now we await their response,” Walker-Brown had said, hopefully.
However, Prendergast had said fans should not have held their breaths for the decision to be overturned.
He was right.
“For FIFA to change a decision, it has to be a technical error. For example, if a free kick should have been an indirect free kick and the team takes a direct free kick which goes into the goal without any person touching the ball and the referee awards the goal that is incorrect by law. That is a technical error because for an indirect free kick to be scored, it must be touched by two players,” Prendergast told The Gleaner.
“But yellow card or not, it is very difficult for FIFA to overturn a referee’s decision like that.”
The decision in question was Shaw’s challenge on French captain Wendie Renard. And while there is debate about whether the yellow card should have been given in that case, Prendergast said that comes down to the referee’s interpretation of what is a yellow card offence, which doesn’t fall into the category of a technical error.
“The principle of a yellow card is you have a yellow card that is shown in the opinion of the referee based on the consideration of something being reckless, showing disregard to the player based on how the challenge is made,” Prendergast said. “That is the opinion of the referee, that is not the opinion of FIFA per se. It is difficult for FIFA to overrule what the referee interprets as a yellow card offence from an opinion versus something that is a technical error in law. You have soft yellow cards and real yellow cards. You can appreciate the term. One could say the referee couldn’t manage that but that is in the opinion of the referee, which is given in law five.”
According to the International Football Association Board laws of the game, rule 5.2 which deals with Decisions of the referee states that the decision of the referee regarding “facts connected with the play” which include whether a goal is valid or not are final and that their decisions must also be respected.
Shaw will miss Saturday’s game against Panama at 7:30 a.m. Jamaica time in Perth, Australia.