Glenn Hoddle and Darren Cann came down on opposite sides of the Jayden Bogle challenge on Mathys Tel in Leeds vs Tottenham. Hoddle said it looked like a yellow in real time. Cann argued it met the threshold for serious foul play, while referee John Brooks showed no card of any colour.

Hoddle's view of the tackle

Hoddle's case was built on how the moment looked at full speed. Speaking to football365.com, he said: "In real time, I thought it was probably a yellow. This is the problem we have. The game isn’t played in slow motion. In real time, I’m not thinking that’s a red card by any means."

He also pointed to the mechanics of the challenge, saying there was no violent play and that Bogle had tried to make a normal tackle. That is the crux of the argument for those who think the booking call was the right one, because the first look matters before replay does.

Bogle's numbers suggest this was not some peripheral player losing control either. He has 10 Premier League appearances and 818 minutes this season, which is enough involvement to make the incident part of a regular starter's afternoon rather than a one-off cameo.

The case for red and VAR's decision

Cann took the opposite view and was far less forgiving. He told football365.com that Bogle was "very fortunate to escape a red card" and said the challenge on Tel met the criteria for serious foul play because it endangered the opponent's safety. VAR watched the incident multiple times before advising Brooks to stick with his original decision.

That sequence is what keeps this from becoming a simple outrage clip. Tel needed lengthy treatment, so the officials had time to review it, and they still stayed with no red. On the evidence presented by the match officials, the threshold was not met in the VAR review room.

The wider annoyance for Leeds is that this was a game in which the decision itself became the story. Bogle stayed on, Brooks did not reach for a card, and the argument moved straight from the touchline to the television studio, where Hoddle and Cann landed on different readings of the same tackle.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →