New reports have now revealed that Max Dowman only lost his red-card appeal by the narrow margin of a 2-1 vote.
Max Dowman was shown a red card during Arsenal’s League Cup match against Fleetwood Town last week, receiving a three-match suspension from domestic fixtures in the process.
The Gunners appealed, arguing both that Dowman didn’t deserve a red card and also that a three-game ban was clearly excessive.
That appeal was rejected, and Dowman has since missed Arsenal’s game against Liverpool. He was able to feature against Slavia Praha in the Champions League, but he’ll be banned for the next two Premier League fixtures against Hull City and Newcastle United.
Yet the BBC now report that Dowman’s appeal against the red was only rejected by two votes to one.
Two voters believed Dowman had the option to step out of the challenge by Harrison Neal without any reaction, and believed that he’d made a “forceful attempt at a retaliatory kick.”.
But the other voter believed Dowman’s actions were petulant rather than violent conduct, and that they “did not constitute a challenge made with excessive force or brutality”. Unfortunately, that view was the minority on this particular panel.
Arsenal’s attempt to reduce the length of the ban was even less effective, with the commission unanimously rejecting it.
They did note that the threshold for such a reduction is a high bar to reach, so it was always unlikely that the ban would be changed if the red card wasn’t overturned. It’s extremely rare for these length-of-ban appeals to succeed.
Unfortunately, Dowman will have to settle for missing the next couple of games, though he will at least be able to play for the England u21s in between.
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