Hearts have released a statement following the yellow card incident involving Malaury Martin against Motherwell.
Despite having no contact whatsoever with Louis Moult, the Hearts player was yellow carded for the striker falling over the foot of team-mate Lionel Ainsworth.
Reacting to the incident the Edinburgh club stated: “The club had intended to appeal the weekend booking of Malaury Martin, who was yellow carded by Andrew Dallas against Motherwell, and indicated an intention to do so on the grounds of “Mistaken Identity”. (i.e. The Referee wrongly identified the player who committed the foul.)
“Following discussions with the club’s legal advisors and various officials at the SFA, it is clear however that the current rules as they stand, do not cover this specific situation.
“Put quite simply, we cannot appeal on the grounds of “Mistaken Identity” as the referee did not mistakenly identify our player. He believed the offence was committed by Malaury.
So if this happened inside the box Andrew Dallas would’ve given @MotherwellFC a penalty against @JamTarts ????? https://t.co/efQAYGwumN pic.twitter.com/g5VBFrrLFC
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) February 4, 2017
“The fact that it was not a foul and that the Motherwell player merely tripped over the feet of his own player, means that while it may have been an error to give the foul and to book our player, it was not a case of mistaken identity.
“The Referee did not mistake Malaury for another Hearts player, which is the only situation that would allow an appeal to be successful in the case of “Mistaken Identity”. Nor can the yellow be rescinded by Referee Dallas as the rules do not allow for this. N.B. Yellow cards can only be appealed in Scotland on two grounds, “simulation” and “mistaken identity”
“The club is going to pursue a potential rule change at the earliest opportunity so that common sense can prevail in the future and no other player or club suffers a similar fate.”
As well as changing the rules Hearts should also, with the support of every club, question the system that has promoted Dallas through the ranks.
The Lanarkshire based whistler seems to have no flair or understanding for the game but with a place on the FIFA list the SFA are duty bound to allocate him to the top matches.
Despite his high profile blunder, the Motherwell v Hearts match was shown live on BT Sport, Dallas will be in charge of Sunday’s Sevco v Morton Scottish Cup tie.
In 18 matches this season Dallas has handed out five red cards with only fellow Lanarkshire referee Willie Collum handing out more red cards.