Thomas Tuchel flies off the handle and demands FIFA explanation after Quansah red card
The England manager didn't hold back after the Three Lions' win over Mexico.
Thomas Tuchel didn’t hold back when asked about Jarrel Quansah’s red card during England vs Mexico. The Three Lions had to battle with 10 men for over 35 minutes of the second half against Mexico at a hostile Azteca Stadium.
Quansah’s challenge had originally been waved away by Alireza Faghani, who was taking charge of the contest. However, as would become a theme in the contest, the Australian-Iranian official was instructed to review the incident at the monitor and opted to send Quansah off.
It left England in the lurch, but following a flurry of defensive changes, Tuchel’s side battled through the adversity and secured safe passage into the quarter-finals. However, the incident sparked controversy post-match as Tuchel referenced the decision made by FIFA to suspend Folarin Balogun’s red card vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, allowing him to play in the USMNT’s round-of-16 tie against Belgium.
Questioning whether the same rule will be applied for Quansah, Tuchel said: "I think first of all, to be very clear, that it was not a red card [for Balogun], but VAR got involved and obviously three people from VAR and the referee checked it and were of the opinion it is a yellow card so the decision is made.
"Who overturns this decision and when and on what grounds? And how far does this go now? It is just strange for me. We just want to have consistency in the decisions.”
He continued: “So, is our yellow card after the first minute against Declan Rice... We can now debate endlessly. I think it is not a yellow card. Do we get this back? Does France get the yellow card back for [Michael] Olise [against Paraguay] which was not a yellow card? Where does this end? I don't know the rules. I am the wrong person to ask. I will wait and see what's coming."
Overall, Tuchel was not impressed by Faghani’s showing, and in a separate rant post-match, blasted the officials for their performance against Mexico. He remarked: "Just not good enough, the referees are just not good enough, the fourth official is just not good enough.
"We had three people on the VAR from South America, is that right? If this is what I saw, if this is correct... VAR overturns, a clear and obvious error for the penalty? For sure not. They didn't even give a foul. They didn't overturn the yellow to a red. Not good enough, the referee and the fourth official was not good enough."
