The Premier League‘s Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has ruled Diogo Jota should not have been sent off in Liverpool‘s controversial 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, ESPN can reveal.
Jota was shown the red card after two challenges in little more than a minute, both on Spurs defender Destiny Udogie.
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ESPN has seen the assessments of the panel for week seven, detailing that the second tackle on Udogie in the 69th minute was not worthy of a yellow card from referee Simon Hooper.
The report stated that “the majority deemed the decision as incorrect as they felt it did not meet the threshold for a yellow card,” with the five members voting 3-2 against a booking.
The panel has five members, made up of three former players and/coaches, plus one representative each from the Premier League and PGMOL.
At the time, few observers questioned the merits of Jota’s second caution, which left the Reds with nine men for the rest of the game. It was the first booking, when Udogie’s trailing leg had clipped the Portuguese forward’s knee, that seemed more worthy of reassessment. However, the panel does not make judgements on the first yellow card if a player is dismissed for two bookable offences.
