he Hammers have decided they won’t be appealing the red card received by Aaron Cresswell against Lyon last night.
Cressie – despite no flag being raised by the referee’s assistant – was red carded by the German referee in what was widely seen as very soft circumstances.
But despite a red card appeal looking inevitable the record shows that they would almost certainly fail to get any sort of result.
It means the 32 year old will be ruled out of what could become a very hostile second leg given the atmosphere which has often been generated at the French club’s stadium.
Hammers officials discussed the situation after the game when David Moyes was also yellow carded for what appeared to be a furious half time exchange with the referee.
And a key insider told us exclusively: ” Sadly in Europe there has virtually never been a successful appeal, so it’s a waste of time.”
I feel very strongly that the Hammers should make an appeal against this red card and to make a complaint against this referee.First off he has history in being banned for involvement in match fixing.Begs the question,how does he retain his badge?It is on record the way the referee favoured Lyon when decisions were made.The red card should never have been shown as the assistant did not flag for a foul and he was closer.Ndombele was already going down before Cressie touched him and the wink after confirms his guilt as having conned the referee.The question here is where was VAR to correct the clear and obvious error?Just because appeals have failed in the past and ends up extending Cressie’s ban should not deter us from highlighting the failures of this referee and will make every game he officiates in aware of how bad he really is.Surely UEFA cannot keep ignoring such situations as they are losing credibility the more it goes on.
A European stitch up in line with their proposals to ‘select’ which clubs will be allowed to qualify for future European competitions. No east end upstarts allowed!!!
Unless UEFA have a “frivolous appeal” rule whereby they can increase the suspension, then why would we not appeal it? Nothing to lose. Ben Johnson looked awful at LB against Tete and he (Tete) is likely to start next week
Hefty fine maybe if we lose