The red card shown to Brighton defender Pascal Struijk during the match against Sunderland has been overturned following a VAR intervention. The decision had drawn criticism, with the incident seen as a poor call by referee Bramall, and the fact that it came via video review making it even more problematic.
Red cards for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity through video review are rare, largely because of the many subjective factors involved. Last season, there were three such dismissals: Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai, Crystal Palace's Maxence Lacroix, and Bournemouth's Marcos Senesi, although the Senesi incident was wrongly rejected at the monitor.
In the Struijk case, there was far too much doubt over whether Isidor would reach the ball before Bart Verbruggen. That made it a possible goalscoring opportunity rather than an obvious one. Given the high threshold for VAR intervention in the Premier League, Bramall should not have been sent to the monitor in the first place.
It is possible that Bramall's judgement was clouded when he went to the screen, particularly as he had not awarded a foul. Still, this was the type of situation where the referee should have rejected the VAR's advice and kept his original decision.
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing