Question Number: 15215

League Specific 4/18/2007

RE: Professional

tony of lees summit, missouri usa asks...

If you are given a red card in high school soccer, and if you protest it, will the suspension be postponed until determining if the red card stands?

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

Probably not! The state rep will make a decision and usually the referees decision stands. My experience with high school is that protests usually are not sucessful.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

I have a feeling you have a need to delay the imposition of a suspension for some reason and you're hoping to file a protest to delay the one your child, or child's teammate must serve. I could be wrong, but that is my assumption.

I have some bad news - not only does protesting cards in HS usually lead no where, if the referee based his decision to eject the player from a judgment call then the card is going to stand.

The only conceivable way that this player would be successful in a protest of this type is to show that the referee had made a mistake when applying the rules of HS soccer. That is to say the referee hypotheically reported the ejection for "dissent" or something like this. Dissent is not a listed ejectionable offense, unless it was the 2nd caution in which case, receiving 2 cautions is the ejectionable offense. So barring any major mistake in applying the rules - or gross behavioral misconduct by the official, it appears that your case won't hold any water.

Now, I don't know what the protest rules are in Missouri's high school sports system, and I can't find it online so you will have to check with your state association.