{"id":904584,"date":"2026-05-09T07:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T12:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/it-wasnt-intentional-sunderland-coach-explains-red-card-incident-with-super-eagles-star\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T12:13:37","slug":"it-wasnt-intentional-sunderland-coach-explains-red-card-incident-with-super-eagles-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/it-wasnt-intentional-sunderland-coach-explains-red-card-incident-with-super-eagles-star\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt wasn\u2019t intentional\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Sunderland coach explains red card incident with Super Eagles star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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\"Soccer<\/p>\n

Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris. Photo Credit: X<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sunderland head coach\u00a0Regis\u00a0Le Bris has addressed the red card\u00a0incident involving defender\u00a0Daniel Ballard\u00a0and\u00a0Wolves forward Tolu Arokodare during last weekend\u2019s Premier League clash,\u00a0Soccernet.ng<\/u><\/a>\u00a0reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Black Cats travelled to Molineux to face already-relegated Wolves, but the major talking point of the game came in the first half when Ballard was\u00a0given his marching orders.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred in the 24th minute when the Sunderland centre-back went up for an aerial\u00a0challenge\u00a0with Arokodare, but ended up grabbing a handful of the Super Eagles forward\u2019s hair while attempting to challenge for the ball.<\/p>\n

The referee\u00a0then issued\u00a0a straight red card\u00a0to Ballard after a VAR review,\u00a0making\u00a0the Northern Irish defender the\u00a0third player\u00a0to be sent off for a similar offence in the\u00a0Premier League season\u00a0this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Soccer
Referee Paul Tiernery issues a red card to Daniel Ballard of Sunderland for violent conduct during a Premier League clash with Wolves. Copyright: GodfreyxPittxImago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It follows earlier incidents involving Manchester United\u2019s Lisandro Mart\u00ednez, who was dismissed for a hair pull on Dominic Calvert-Lewin,\u00a0as well as\u00a0Everton\u2019s Michael Keane, who also committed a similar foul on Arokodare.<\/p>\n

The match eventually ended 1-1, with both sides sharing the points\u00a0as Santiago Bueno\u2019s second-half strike cancelled out an early goal from Nordi Mukiele, extending Sunderland\u2019s winless run to three matches.<\/p>\n

Soccer Le Bris reacts to Ballard\u2019s dismissal\u00a0during Wolves vs Sunderland clash<\/h2>\n

Sunderland submitted an appeal to the Premier League in an attempt to overturn the red card\u00a0after the match,\u00a0but it was rejected. As a result, Ballard will now serve a three-match ban for violent conduct, ruling him out for the remainder of the season with just three games left.<\/p>\n

\"Soccer
Tolu Arokodare of Wolverhampton Wanderers during the Premier League match against Sunderland at Molineux.Photo by IMAGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking during his pre-match press conference on Thursday ahead of their meeting with Manchester United, Le Bris expressed disappointment over the outcome and\u00a0also\u00a0defended\u00a0the decision of the Northern Ireland international.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYes, we are [disappointed]. The situation was a bit unclear\u201d,\u00a0Le Bris said, via BBC Sport.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cThe Premier League is built around physicality, intensity and I do think that Ballard tried to grab the shirt in the duel. Unfortunately long hair got caught and it wasn’t intentional. The law is the law so I understand the referee at one point but at the same time I think the rule is a bit unclear.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cWe will try to use the time to prepare the next season because we don’t have another choice\u201d, the\u00a0Frenchman concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Soccer
Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool turned by Tolu Arokodare of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wolverhampton. Picture credit: ImagoxAndrew Yates\/ Sportimage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunderland will be looking to end their three-match winless streak when they host Manchester United at the Stadium of Light this weekend, as they look to keep their slim chance of securing European qualification alive.<\/p>\n

They will then travel to face Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in their penultimate fixture, before concluding their campaign against Chelsea on May 24\u00a0as they hope to finish the season strongly.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"<!--Ayomide Oguntimehin” src=”https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/thumbor\/ycGEJDr9VZlpO_5zujn3ZdvICxA=\/150×150\/smart\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.soccernet.ng%2Fmain%2F2024%2F12%2FAyomide-Oguntimehin-pics.jpg” height=”80″ width=”80″>\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tAyomide Oguntimehin\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAyomide Oguntimehin is a CAF-accredited sports journalist and Chief Editor at Soccernet.ng. He has interviewed Super Eagles stars like William Troost-Ekong, Taiwo Awoniyi, Bright Osayi-Samuel, and Ademola Lookman, and is known for breaking major transfer stories.<\/p>\n

Ayomide has worked with Sports Brief, Naija News and served as Social Lead Editor at Legit.ng. He has also featured on Goal, TVC News, Sports Mole, and Milan News24. He holds a Master\u2019s degree and is currently pursuing a PhD. Follow Ayomide on X (formerly Twitter): @ayo_oguntimehin\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Ayomide Oguntimehin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris. Photo Credit: X Sunderland head coach\u00a0Regis\u00a0Le Bris has addressed the red card\u00a0incident involving defender\u00a0Daniel Ballard\u00a0and\u00a0Wolves forward Tolu Arokodare during last weekend\u2019s Premier League clash,\u00a0Soccernet.ng\u00a0reports. The Black Cats travelled to Molineux to face already-relegated Wolves, but the major talking point of the game came in the first half when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":904585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36971,2005,3389],"tags":[44104,15049],"class_list":{"0":"post-904584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-it","8":"category-soccer","9":"category-wasnt","10":"tag-it","11":"tag-wasnt"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}