Eleven red cards were distributed in a single day of the championship. It happened last weekend. Ligue 1 broke a sad record of 11 red cards and nine were distributed in Ligue 2.
This situation has annoyed some coaches, in particular the Auxerrois coach Jean-Marc Furlan after the four exclusions during the match Montpellier-Auxerre.
“There were 4 reds, it’s quite heavy in a match where there is no extreme violence”did he declare. So of course, the coaches rarely agree with the referees but the situation raises questions.
According to Bruno Derrien, former referee internationalI, “the referees probably had to receive instructions from the refereeing department. So I think it’s linked to the instructions that were given at the start of the season when the referees want to give the la a bit”.
But this hypothesis was immediately refuted by Stéphane Lannoymember of the technical arbitration board: “There is no more severity. The same requirement with regard to the protection of football”. And since after revision, the technical direction did not consider any red card too severe, Stéphane Lannoy prefers to evoke the responsibility of the players.
But instructions were indeed given to the referees, in particular concerning the contestation of their decision by the players and the coaches. From now on, they will have to punish them more harshly. Against Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), for example, the Niçois Jean-Clair Todibo, after a fault which he considered unfair had knocked the ball out of his hand in frustration. Immediate punishment and misunderstanding on the player’s side: “The referee lacked pedagogy on this second yellow card. Of course I am wrong for having had a gesture of humor.”
“Now unfortunately the problem is that we no longer have the right to have emotions on the pitch”.
Jean-Clair Todibo, defender at OGC Niceat franceinfo
One thing is certain for former referee Bruno Derrien, the problem lies in the lack of communication: “There was no communication that was made by the refereeing management, the management of the players, the players, the clubs but also the general public and the media to say ‘Here, this season, we asked the referees to really take care of the protection of the players and to punish severely the excesses of commitment'”. The French football federation tried this summer to bring the clubs together to talk about arbitration, but for lack of participants, the meeting was canceled.