Barry Bannan will now be available for Sheffield Wednesday’s match against Millwall.
The club have confirmed on their official website that the midfielder has seen his ban overturned after he was sent off against Bristol City.
Barry Bannan had continued his place in the starting line-up as Sheffield Wednesday’s captain under Danny Rohl, but had looked set to miss this weekend’s Championship clash with Millwall.
The 33-year-old was dismissed after he was seen to have clipped Jason Knight on the edge of the box, with the referee claiming Bannan had denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Barry Bannan was shown the red and the Owls went down to ten men, before losing the game 1-0 at Ashton Gate.
Sheffield Wednesday went onto appeal the decision as they believed it wasn’t denying Knight an obvious goalscoring opportunity as there was still the defender and the goalkeeper between himself and the sticks.
According to the FA’s laws, things that have to be taken into account include:
- distance between the offence and the goal
- general direction of the play
- likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball
- location and number of defenders
With that in mind, Sheffield Wednesday have now confirmed they were successful in their appeal and Barry Bannan will be available once again for another important tie at Hillsborough.
Barry Bannan is on a long list of players to suffer from poor officiating
While it was quite clearly not a red card, I didn’t expect the decision to actually get overturned due to its subjective nature.
While Barry Bannan definitely did clip him (slightly), there were was far from a guarantee that Jason Knight would have gone onto score. Di’Shon Bernard was between the midfielder and the goal and would have quite likely prevented Bristol City from succeeding with their chance.
It was the right decision to claim wrongful dismissal, but it is yet again another poor decision from Championship officials that has had a major impact on the game.
The ‘vital‘ midfielder’s sending off didn’t directly result in the Robins’ win, however they were at a major disadvantage for most of the game and could have perhaps got something out of it if their captain was on the pitch.
Clubs continue to get punished for poor officiating, but the referees themselves just get let off the hook.