Bean slams ´ridiculous´ Derry decision

Former English FA compliance officer Graham Bean has voiced his disgust at the decision to uphold QPR midfielder Shaun Derry’s red card.

Derry was sent off within the opening 15 minutes during his side’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester United at the weekend as referee Lee Mason awarded a penalty and showed a straight red card to the former Leeds United man.

Bean believes the FA should be made to give explanations for their decisions, and has also bemoaned the fact that Ashley Young appeared to be in an offside position leading up to the incident.

“It’s about time the FA comes out and gives explanations as to why they reach these ridiculous decisions,” Bean told talkSPORT.

“We gave the FA a get out of jail card yesterday because we based the appeal on two fronts. First of all the sending off was wrong but, secondly, within the FA’s rules there is an opportunity for them where there are exceptional circumstances to say that the penalty was excessive.

“What we said to them was that, even if you think the decision to send him off was right, given the circumstances, ie this was an offside goal, then these are exceptional circumstances.

“So, the FA could have still backed the referee by claiming the decision was right but saying, ‘yeah, we recognise there are exceptional circumstances and therefore the ban hasn’t got to be imposed’. Yet they even failed to do that.”

Since resigning from his post as FA compliance officer in 2003, Bean has formed the organisation ‘Football Factors’, a company specialising in defending players against disciplinary charges.

Bean joined the FA in 1999, and he says the decision to uphold Derry’s ban is one of the strangest he has seen in his 13 years in the game.

“In my time working in football I’ve seen some weird and wonderful decisions by the FA and this is up there among the top three or four of them. I think it is a travesty they reached this decision,” he said.