Man City Exclusive: Referee sent off Rico Lewis amid threat of being sent home

Man City Exclusive: Referee sent off Rico Lewis amid threat of being sent home

Ramon Abatti sent off Man City defender Rico Lewis against Wydad AC to avoid the threat of being sent home from the the Club World Cup, according to Keith Hackett.

The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that the Brazilian official played things safe for himself by dismissing the 20-year-old.

Man City began their Club World Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over Wydad on Wednesday night (18 June).

Phil Foden scored the fastest goal of the tournament with less than two minutes on the clock to open the scoring, before Jeremy Doku doubled the lead shortly before half time.

That was enough to secure all three points for Pep Guardiola‘s side at the start of the group stage, although the game did end on a sour note for the Premier League club.

Pep Guardiola may have mixed feelings after his team’s first Club World Cup game (Credit Imago)

Rico Lewis sees red

With just two minutes of normal time remaining, Lewis slid in for a 50/50 challnge with Wydad striker Samuel Obeng.

MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES

Although the right-back was first to the ball, he also caught his opponent in the face on the follow through, prompting Abatti to brandish a red card in his direction.

The decision to send Lewis off for Man City caused plenty of debate among pundits, even if it did not impact the final result.

Now, Hackett believes that with the influence of FIFA’s head of referees Pierluigi Collina hanging over the Club World Cup, Abatti was attempting to ensure he avoided any major error that could have seen his tournament brought to an early end.

Keith Hackett explains referee thinking that led to Man City red

While speaking to Football Insider about the dismissal, the former official offered an insight mindset of the referee in making the decision to dismiss Lewis.

Discussing that aspect of the sending off, Hackett said: “In tournaments where the referees have attended workshops under the management of referees boss, Pierluigi Collina, the referee will take the self preservation route and jump to red rather than yellow to avoid been sent home.”

Having received that red card, Lewis now faces a suspension for Man City, whose next game in the tournament comes against the Emirati side Al-Ain overnight on Monday morning (23 June).

Click here to read article