Andy Caroll red card: West Ham United lose last-ditch appeal to get the three-match ban overturned
Hammers had challenged the FA's decision but the independent arbitral tribunal rejected West Ham's case
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Your support makes all the difference.West Ham United have failed in their challenge to the Football Association’s decision to uphold Andy Carroll’s three-match suspension.
An independent tribunal rejected West Ham’s case on Friday, and Carroll’s ban takes immediate effect.
West Ham are unhappy that the England striker’s suspension – a consequence of being sent off by Howard Webb against Swansea last week after an altercation with defender Chico Flores – was not overturned by the FA, and took the case to tribunal in the pursuit of what manager Sam Allardyce said was “justice”.
However, the independent panel, at which the FA was also represented, turned down West Ham’s submissions, and so Carroll will now serve his ban, starting at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Allardyce firmly believes the east London club were right to take the matter further, with the fallout from the FA’s decision dominating the scheduled pre-match press conference on Friday morning before the final decision of the tribunal was known.
“I think the whole procedure in terms of how we put our case together and the vast swell of people who felt it was unjust and for me the panel has not seen it how they should have seen it and as the evidence we gave,” he said.
“In this case they were looking at it from the view of one thing only: was it an obvious mistake? So we based our procedure on this, and I’m 100 per cent certain it was an obvious mistake – Howard Webb should have given a free-kick for Andy against Flores, at that stage the whistle blows and there’s no incident, so that’s an obvious mistake, because it is an obvious free-kick.”
The FA issued a statement on Friday night, saying: “The independent tribunal resolved that there was no serious issue to be tried and also awarded the FA its costs.”
West Ham wrote on their website: “Whilst West Ham United are obviously disappointed at the decision, as we have made clear throughout, we respect the rules of football and shall abide by them.”
The West Ham co-chairman, David Gold, said earlier in the week that the ban could affect West Ham’s chances of avoiding relegation.
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