Former Spurs ace Gary Mabbutt told Sky Sports News that football's red card system is 'inadequate'.
Professional body should discuss all dismissals, says Mabbutt
Former Tottenham captain Gary Mabbutt believes an overhaul of the red card system is crucial in order to address inconsistency in the game.
Premier League chairmen will meet on Thursday to discuss proposals that could see the introduction of a special panel to review every red card - and the length of any subsequent ban.
And Mabbutt, who sits on the FA's disciplinary panel, thinks that when it comes to dismissals, extra support is needed.
"There should be a professional body that sits four times a week - Monday to Thursday - when all the games have been played during the week and at the weekend," Mabbutt told
Sky Sports News.
"And after every game, this panel will sit down and look at every straight red card and then be able to decide whether it was a one-game ban or a three-game ban, or for extreme situations, even more than that."
Mabbutt's long-standing call for change stems from a controversial incident during the 2002/3 season, when Arsenal's Sol Campbell was sent off for apparently elbowing Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
"When there is an injustice, I think it should be able to be righted.
"I think the inadequacy of the red card system was really brought home to me about five years ago, when Sol Campbell was playing for Arsenal. He was running out of defence with the ball on his left side and felt a player trying to challenge him from his right, and he's thrown his arm back briefly just to hold the player off.
"It was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and as he's thrown his arm back, he has caught Solsksjaer in the face. The referee saw that situation, he gave Sol a straight red card, and that meant he had a three-game ban.
"At that time I went to the FA and said, 'Look, you can clearly see that there was no intent there, it wasn't malicious and surely that deserves just a one-game ban'.
Disparity
"You are also having players who are getting straight red cards and they're only getting three-game bans when they're putting in very dangerous tackles that could actually ruin a player's career, so there's a disparity there."
Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter supports Mabbutt's call for a new red card panel but believes the FA must lay down the law from the off.
"If we're going to have between a one and a five match ban I think it needs to be detailed from the outset that, say, a two-footed tackle is a five-match ban or a handball on the goal line is a one-match ban," added Winter.
"Have it defined like that so there won't be any accusations that one club is being favoured at the expense of another."
