Cardiff lose FA appeal to have Joe Ralls’ red card at Tottenham overturned
Bluebirds challenged the sending off shown to the midfielder on Saturday and the FA confirm they were unsuccessful
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CARDIFF were unsuccessful in their appeal against Joe Ralls' red card against Tottenham last weekend.
The FA have now confirmed he will miss the next three Cardiff games.
SunSport exclusively revealed last night that Cardiff had failed to convince the FA to overturn Mike Dean's decision.
But the three-game ban is now in force and means Ralls will miss Cardiff's games at home to Fulham and Leicester either side of a trip to Liverpool.
Ralls was sent off by referee Dean for a tackle on Lucas Moura in the second half of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Wembley - sparking a touchline row.
Cardiff appealed the three-match ban because they did not believe the challenge fell under the sanction for serious foul play.
But the Football Association disciplinary panel, who watched video evidence, rejected the appeal.
Cardiff boss Neil Warnock was left fuming on Saturday, insisting the cynical challenge in his side's 1-0 defeat was only worthy of a yellow card.
He said: "At that stage with half an hour to go, on the halfway line… it wasn’t a dangerous tackle, he hasn’t endangered the life of a player so I don’t know why it’s a red card.
“I think Mike [Dean] when he sees it, he’ll be disappointed really. A third of the refs would probably give it, two thirds would probably give a yellow card.
“I thought Mike, an experienced referee, was going to give a yellow card from the start.
“But he left it – there were on or two busy people around today, the linesman and the fourth official – and I’m sure one of those influenced them.
“I think when he looks tonight he would have given a yellow card nine times out of 10 if it was left to him. I think he was wrong.”
It was not the first time Ralls had put in a forceful challenge on a Premier League star this season after catching Ilkay Gundogan high in Cardiff's 5-0 defeat to Manchester City.
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Ralls joins Watford's Jose Holebas and Christian Kabasele as well as Jan Bednarek of Southampton on the list of suspended Premier League players.
Wes Morgan is also serving his ban after picking up his second red card of the season in Leicester's 2-1 defeat to Everton.
