AS SUPPORTERS of Reading Football Club will know, two of the three goals by which the Royals beat Derby County on Saturday were from penalties.

Both were from breakaways, when Reading players ran with the ball into the Derby penalty area with just the goalkeeper between them and glory, only to be felled by a chasing defender.

What apparently has puzzled many supporters is why, when the offence was the same, ‘denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity’, the punishment for the two offenders differed. One being sent off with a red card and the other only receiving a yellow card.

The way the Reading players surrounded the referee perhaps showed they were of the same mind.

With the benefit of the highlights on television, I am able to answer this question. If the offences had happened four years ago, both offenders would have received their marching orders.

It all goes back to a long campaign by the coaches of Europe, about what they termed as the triple punishment of this law. The penalty, the player being sent off for the remainder of the game and subsequently being suspended for further matches.

The IFAB thought long and hard, rejecting several suggestions, and three seasons ago came up with the Law as it now stands. ‘A player is cautioned (yellow card) for denying a goal-scoring opportunity, if the offence was an attempt to play the ball. In all other circumstances e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility of playing the ball, the offending player must be sent off’.

The television showed that in the first incident, the Derby player seemed to stumble and pushed the Reading player over, with no chance of playing the ball. Even if he had not intended to bring the Reading player down, it was sending off offence.

In the later incident the Reading player was brought down by a tackle. The onus was then on the referee to decide whether this was an attempt to play the ball, which obviously he concluded it was, and only issued a yellow card.