Johnny Phillips: Red cards ruin the game - so compensate the fans!

The Blues have at least had some form of recompense for a decision that should have been left to the on-field referee’s initial judgment.

But that was scant consolation for the travelling Evertonians, who faced an expensive and tedious journey to south-east London on a Thursday night.

The following evening it was Wolves supporters who were battling the Friday rush hour to make it down to west London for their Cup tie against Brentford, which was then ruined by a red card for Joao Gomes early on in the game.

While that dismissal did not have the controversial hallmark of Calvert-Lewin’s the previous evening, it did raise the issue of red cards, which are far more prevalent now than in previous eras.

That is not necessarily a bad thing from the perspective of protecting footballers from injury, but with games now being re-refereed in VAR hubs there is more likelihood of players being subjected to red cards in the modern age.

Although both incidents took place in Cup matches, the Premier League is the platform where most money is being generated.

Ticket prices are rising year on year despite the vast sums of money flowing into the game from broadcast rights deals.

Sponsorship revenues are increasing. Players’ wages continue to rise.

VAR is a hugely expensive piece of technology which the Premier League have committed to.

New facilities continue to be built– such as the Brentford Community Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Everton’s Bramley Moore Docks.

Others, like Liverpool and Newcastle, are making significant ground improvements.

In short, everywhere you turn, money is being invested to make the Premier League a supposedly better product.

Yet, whether it be the fault of players or match officials, one aspect of the game that has never been up for discussion is: what happens when a red card ruins that product for the paying spectator?

Perhaps the time has now come for fans to be compensated when a red card changes the complexion and quality of a Premier League match.

It is a fanciful idea and there is little to no chance of any administrator running with it, but it would be a lovely way of addressing a problem which is becoming a wider issue for those who pay substantial amounts of money following their team, particularly visiting fans who are also committing to hefty travel costs.

Of course, the biggest obstacle would involve settling on a system of redress for supporters.

What form should that compensation take and should it be restricted to just the price of a ticket?

Tongue firmly in cheek, but why not go the whole hog and dish out a bit extra to include train fares, petrol, food and beverage costs for the day?

With the price of a pint smashing through the £7 barrier in plenty of hostelries in the capital, those Everton and Wolves supporters will have forked out a few quid in refuelling expenses alone during their evenings out last week.

There could be a grading system for the time of dismissal and minutes played with 10 men.

Certainly Wolves were more hamstrung by the timing of their red card than Everton the previous evening.

And then what about a tier structure for the importance of the player sent off?

Similar to the Fifa player cards, each attribute could be added up to an overall points tally which puts each player in a seeded category.

Should Wolves lose Pedro Neto to a red card after just 10 minutes of the match then fans would earn slightly more in compensation than they would for seeing Fabio Silva dismissed with just five minutes remaining. You get the drift.

Fairness of the card should also come into account in terms of who foots the bill.

With a two-footed knee-high lunge where the referee has no choice but to issue a red then the offending player’s club should foot the costs of reimbursing fans.

But in the case of Calvert-Lewin last week, where the red card was so unjust, then the bill should land at the door of the competition’s organisers, which in that case were the FA.

Imagine the hullaballoo on those debatable reds!

The Premier League and the clubs going head-to-head, in a heated arbitration process to decide who was most responsible for each red card.

With no expertise of knowing what it is like to actually pay for a ticket, the administrators could fully embrace the match-going experience while casting judgement.

An independent panel sitting every week in the Euston Flyer over an all-day breakfast to dish out the punishments and put some money back into the pockets of long-suffering supporters.