The Premier League Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel is in the news once again.
The KMI panel has five members, made up of three former players and/or coaches, plus one representative each from the Premier League and PGMOL.
It was set up at the start of the 2022/23 season to give an independent assessment of decision-making rather than relying on the views of PGMOL or the clubs themselves.
The judgement is intended to provide an arm’s-length assessment of all major match incidents but gives weight to the decision of the referee in subjective situations, taking into account the laws of the game and the Premier League’s interpretation.
Anyway, the Premier League Independent Key Match Incidents Panel are making headlines again, this time regarding incidents in recent matches.
Amongst the latest games/incidents under scrutiny, the Premier League Key Match Incidents Panel have looked at the Newcastle United v Manchester United match.
The KMI Panel have ruled that Newcastle United forward Jacob Ramsey was wrongly sent off against Man U, that he should not have received a second yellow card.
Ramsey was sent off towards the end of the first half with the match goalless, for supposedly having dived in the penalty area to try to win a penalty.
The woeful referee Peter Bankes was walking away after the incident after seemingly seeing nothing wrong, then after Man U players surrounded him he then changed his mind, sending off Jacob Ramsey.
The Premier League Key Match Incidents Panel judging that Peter Bankes had been wrong to do so, a 3:2 vote that Ramsey’s “left foot appears to slip as he goes past the keeper” and that it “wasn’t an attempt to deceive the referee.”
At the moment, second yellow cards can’t be reviewed by VAR.
Though that will change from the start of the 2026/27 season, VAR will then be able to intervene to overturn second yellows, but this will be only in very limited circumstances, such as if a yellow card has been awarded for a foul, then the foul itself must be wrong, not just the card.
With the Jacob Ramsey red card, it is the first time this season the Premier League Key Match Incidents Panel has found a player has been incorrectly sent off for a second yellow.