2 months ago
79
Arsenal legend, Ian Wright is not a fan of the UEFA rule which automatically suspends players who received more than one yellow card before the semi-final stage of the European Championship.
Ian Wright described the rule as “ridiculous”, stressing that it doesn’t make sense that a player can miss a semi-final game for receiving one yellow card in the first game of a tournament and another yellow card in the knockout round.
Before now, the popular notion was that all the yellow cards a player receives in the group stage are cancelled in the knockout stage, meaning that such a player ought to start on a clean slate.
However, in the ongoing 2024 European Championship, the reverse is the case. The UEFA rule permits the yellow card a player receives in the group stage to follow the player to the knockout stage.
Hence, if a player receives two yellow cards between the group stage and the quarter-final stage, the player will be suspended for a game.
However, if a player receives one yellow card between the group stage and the quarter-finals, the card will be wiped off if the player’s team makes it to the semi-finals.
The above rule has heavily impacted Spain’s national team who will be without two of their players, Dani Carvajal and Robin Le Normand, in the semi-finals, due to the two yellow cards they received in the previous stages of the competition.
“That’s ridiculous,” Ian Wright said on ITV.
“We are five games in now so you can get booked in the first game and then the fourth game and miss the semi-final.
“It’s too much. When these players [for Spain] settle down, some of them will realise they are missing a semi-final.”
English (US) ·