Why it wasn't a red

manor15 said:

Assuming this is correct, surely even if there is someone behind a player who saves the ball with his hand to deny a goal it is a yellow card offence? I couldn't understand how it wasn't a red but not showing a card at all is simply baffling.

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For me, it's got to be red or nothing in that situation. He's gone nothing which means that he was confident the ball was not going to go in the goal or, as suggested quite plausibly, they did not know (or couldn't agree) who the culprit was.

In my refereeing days there were a number of occasions when I wasn't quite sure who committed an offence and I'd tend to step away and shout "over here, please, blue (or whatever colour)"; fortunately worked every time.

rigsby said:

That's where my money would be. Plus the 15,000 fans screaming abuse meant more pressure not to get the wrong man. They did mention players names to our staff, making out they had seen it all. Had plenty of time after to look at the game on the monitor etc before speaking to our management.

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I had an experience like this on the ESL some years ago (I was running the line and at the other end). Clear handball, punched it over the bar. No card. At the time it was just another really poor bit of reffing on the day (possibly the worst I ever saw at Senior level).

Long story short, the ref claimed whilst he saw the hand he couldn't identify the player (though either of his assistants could have done if asked) and as such didn't produce a card of any colour. We agreed (the linos that is) that he should have sent someone off, even if it was wrong. The club could always appeal on the basis of mistaken identity - in doing this they would need to identify who the actual culprit was.

That ensure that for the game at least, they play with one man short as per the Law and it can be sorted out afterwards.

That said, I wasn't at Portsmouth nor have I seen the incident on video, so I can't comment on the actual incident