I'll hold my hand up and say I thought it was a definite red. Would be interested to know on what grounds it was successful. The footage I saw looked like he deliberately kicked up at Howson.
So did the panel view the footage and think it was unintentional? (Im assuming it was this)
Or are they saying there was no contact (pretty sure there was)?
Or are they saying there wasn't enough force used and that's now a factor? (even though there's been plenty of precedent set suggesting the amount of force doesn't matter if you're kicking out at someone off the ball).
I mean, I agree it was soft as have similar sending offs been, but, unless it was the first one and there's an angle that makes it clear it wasn't intentional, as ever there seems to be no consistency again. Almost as if they're making it up as they go along.
And I've got sympathy for the ref (and not just because it benefitted us
) because it looked on several replays like it was intentional and there was no reason for Sainz to have his legs up in that position anyway.