Soccer-Soucek's red card overturned after West Ham's appeal

LONDON: West Ham United midfielder Tomas Soucek's red card in Saturday's goalless Premier League draw at Fulham has been overturned following an appeal to the FA, the club said on Monday.

Soucek was sent off in stoppage time when he appeared to accidentally elbow Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic in the face, with referee Mike Dean issuing a red card after looking at the incident on the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) monitor.

West Ham on Sunday said they had appealed to the FA to rescind the red card.

"The appeal against Soucek’s red card was reviewed by an independent regulatory commission this morning at the Football Association and, following this process, the midfielder’s suspension has been rescinded and lifted with immediate effect," West Ham said in a statement https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2021/february/08-february/tomas-soucek-red-card-rescinded-appeal.

Soucek spoke after the game to Mitrovic, who said their duel was fair. West Ham manager David Moyes said it was an "embarrassing decision" by VAR and Dean.

The Czech midfielder will now be available for Tuesday's FA Cup fifth-round tie at Manchester United.

Last week, Southampton appealed and successfully rescinded Jan Bednarek's red card in their 9-0 loss at Manchester United after the defender was sent off by Dean.

(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)