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Bruno Fernandes will not serve a suspension for his dismissal in Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat by Tottenham after a successful appeal.
The Red Devils skipper was shown a straight red card for a high tackle on James Maddison in the 41st minute of Erik ten Hag’s side’s dismal showing at Old Trafford.
However, replays indicated that the midfielder had not made contact with Maddison with his studs, while his challenge was not as high up on the leg of the Englishman as first thought.
Despite VAR reviewing the incident, the decision was taken to stick with the call made by referee Chris Kavanagh. The Portuguese was instead forced to leave the field in a game the visitors would continue to press home their superiority with a man advantage.
Kavanagh’s decision was slammed by pundits in the aftermath of the fixture, while Fernandes himself claimed the tackle ‘never a red card’ during a post-match interview.
Additionally, former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher came to the defence of the United skipper and claimed that Kavanagh’s poor view and his assistant’s potential ‘optical illusion’ led to the error.
Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: ‘[There is] a lot of debate. That’s the referee’s view – I don’t think the referee can see it, that’s the first point. I don’t think the referee sees the challenge happen, and if you look at the screen, you will see the assistant flag it.
‘The assistant has a different view and a different angle, and if you run it on, this is the assistant. That is not his [Kavanagh’s] angle.
‘This is the assistant’s angle. If you stop there, you could understand why the assistant would relay to the referee that Fernandes is high; he’s off the ground and he would have the impression that he’s caught him knee-high. But when you run it through, you only see that it’s a glancing blow down the leg. He doesn’t catch him like he thinks.
‘I can understand the referee not seeing it, he has to go on the assistant’s view and that is that he’s high, and he’s caught him like that – but he hasn’t. I think he has an optical illusion. When you see it, a more palatable decision would be a yellow card.’
Shortly after the incident, the Premier League confirmed the reasoning behind the huge call and revealed that Fernandes had been dismissed for ‘serious foul play’.
