Premier League referee explains the controversial booking of Arsenal's Declan Rice

The referee who issued a red card to Declan Rice during Arsenal's match against Brighton & Hove Albion last month expressed his disapproval of the rule that led to the controversial decision.

Rice, already carrying a yellow card, attempted to block Joel Veltman's quick free-kick by tapping the ball away. Veltman then made forceful contact with Rice after missing the ball, leading to the red card being shown to the Arsenal midfielder, despite expectations that it would be given to the Brighton defender for violent conduct.

In the recent episode of Match Officials, Mic'd Up, Howard Webb explained Premier League refereeing decisions, and the audio from the game revealed the referee's reluctance to send off Rice.

Arsenal was particularly upset about Rice's sending-off because the ball was still in motion when he kicked it away, which would have made Veltman's free-kick invalid anyway. However, Webb, a former top-level referee, aimed to clarify why this detail didn't ultimately affect the overall incident.

Howard Webb's explaination to the booking of Rice 

Webb explained that though the ball was rolling yet another Rice kicked the ball. Referees have to assess the situation in which a player does something, and in the incident of Rice, he deliberately tried to take the ball away from the opposition. He emphasized that Rice deliberately tried to delay the restart, and hence, there are no doubts regarding his booking.

Webb explained, "In that situation, the referee focuses on Rice's actions and determines he has to deal with him because those actions are intentionally designed to kick the ball away when he had no business going near the ball in the first place."

"Having given away a free-kick, Rice knows he has got to get away and let that free-kick be taken and the referee deals with everything else," he further added.

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