Former referee and PGMOL manager, Keith Hackett has voiced his opinion on the suspension facing Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope via his Twitter page.
Former referee questions Pope suspension decision
Now that the dust has settled somewhat, I think it’s fair to say that even the most die-hard Newcastle fans will find it hard to deny that Nick Pope‘s red card on Saturday was justified, but the pill that many are finding hard to swallow is how his red card in a league match translates into a suspension for the upcoming Cup Final.
Yellow cards don’t crossover competitions but suspensions from red cards do which means Pope will not be available for selection on Sunday. This has many people up in arms, but the truth is, if the rule was different we’d still be without Bruno Guimaraes who’d be serving the first of his three-game ban in that competition on Sunday and having to wait until next season to serve the remainder.
Having our cake and eating it too
As much as we’d like to, we can’t have it both ways. However, fans, pundits and now even former referees are looking for loopholes, exceptions or whatever they can in order to allow Nick Pope to play on Sunday.
Keith Hackett took to Twitter to air his views, saying: “Football can be very cruel and sadly because of a few seconds of almost doing something naturally Nick Pope Newcastle GK misses a final. The referee was correct to dismiss Pope. The authorities should delay the sanction to enable Pope to play. There I have said it.”
As good as it would be to have our stalwart between the sticks at the weekend, if an exception were to be made the uproar would be massive, and while it could be funny from a Newcastle fan perspective, the repercussions it could have would likely not be worth it.
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