Fans React As English Referee Issues Round Red Card During FA Cup Match

• The FA Cup match between Wrexham and Sheffield United witnessed something strange
• The referee issued a round card as against the commonly issued rectangular card
• Fans had a mix of surprise and confusion as to why it was used in the FA Cup fourth round

Football is a dynamic sport with vast rules and formats unknown. Many exist in the rule books but are not known by fans until they happen and are explained.

The rules are also ever changing as it is reviewed ahead of the football season, with IFAB allowing for respective leagues to make modifications that suit them.

Some things are not new, neither are some things extinct. Such was the incident where the official issued a round card in the match between Wrexham and Sheffield United, as noted by Sport Bible.

What a round card means

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Football

The use of the circular red card came in the 71st minute of the encounter, when referee Dean Whitestone issued a red card to send off Sheffield’s Daniel David Jebbison and got fans confused by the shape as reported by Give Me Sport.

“The circular and oval cards were originally introduced to “assist” players who couldn’t differentiate between the colours. It was also to help the referee who wanted to pull out the quick card, the shape telling him which card he was pulling out.” Ref Chat Forum explained to Indian Express.

Fans reaction to round card

The bulk of the reactions to the incident were that the tackle should not have warranted a sending off, with the shape further adding to it with many claiming it's a newly implemented type of booking.

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@CoachMick04 wrote:

They did this decades ago so colour blind spectators could tell colour of cards easier, round red, rectangle Yellow.

@darren5808 wrote:

It’s the referees choice for what shape or style of card he uses as long as they are yellow or red!

@nigelpeter01 wrote:

I'm even more confused by the fact that David Coote didn't pull out a red card, no matter what shape, in the Liverpool/Brighton game.

@awayfromhome99 wrote:

They look horrible

@AlexPortelada tweeted:

Can anyone explain why he got a red as I didn’t get to see it on the tele. They kept showing a small challenge after it but not what the red was for

Referee issues first white card

Confusions around cards have happened a lot lately, last week a referee in Portugal issued a white card as earlier reported by Sports Brief.

The match between Benfica and Sporting Lisbon had a stoppage for the medical team to attend to a fan who had fainted, making the referee issue them a white card.

As explained, it is a new innovation to appreciate fair play and will be commonly used in Portugal henceforth.