A Japanese football match involving two Australian internationals will be replayed, after it was ruled that a player was illegally sent off.
Montedio Yamagata’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Fagiano Okayama in the country’s second division has been scrubbed from the record books, after the process that saw goalkeeper Masaaki Goto sent from the field was found to not be within the laws of the game.
After an errant backpass, Goto dived backwards to desperately knock the ball away to prevent it rolling into his own net for an embarrassing own goal.
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It should have been a rarely-seen free kick inside the box for handling a backpass, but that should have been the only punishment.
Instead, the keeper was marched from the field.
Socceroos Mitchell Duke and Stefan Mauk were both subbed on for Fagiano Okayama in the second half, as they claimed a stoppage time winner.
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But now, after being forced to play with 10 men for 80 minutes, Montedio Yamagata will get another shot.
“Rule says that Okayama should have been given a free kick but card should not have been shown,” Tokyo-based journalist Dan Orlowitz wrote on social media.
“Because this was a decision that fell outside the rules of the game, it’s not a case where the referee’s ruling on the pitch (no matter how bad it is) cannot be overruled.”
He said it was yet to be decided if the match would restart from the beginning, or for the remaining 80 minutes after the mistake occurred.
“There were a lot of opinions, but from the point of fairness and wanting to protect the integrity of the league … we decided to replay this match,” J-League chairman Yoshikazu Nonomura said.
“Going forward, referees should continue to be respected… we want everyone to share that feeling.”
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