Nottingham Forest have formally registered a complaint with PGMOL, claiming that Everton’s James Tarkowski should have been sent off for a shoulder barge from behind on Dan Ndoye that left the Forest winger on the floor.
The off-the-ball clash happened in the 11th minute of Saturday's match at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and Forest's bosses believe the result could have been very different had Tarkowski seen red. The score was 1-0 at the time before Forest went on to lose 3-0.
The incident was not seen by on-field referee Chris Kavanagh, but the VAR, James Bell, decided not to intervene.
Bell felt the challenge met the criteria of violent conduct, and so it was not worthy of a red card. The VAR is unable to act in cases where a yellow card might be the appropriate sanction.
The PGMOL does not comment on confidential communications with clubs.
Forest boss Sean Dyche was "amazed" Tarkowksi was not sent off.
The ex-Everton boss said: "On another day, I'm amazed big Tarky gets away with that but he did.
"Not even a yellow card. It's not a shove if you look at it. Players get yellows and reds now for just touching heads together and it's a lot more than that."
After the complaint had been registered, Dyche spoke exclusively to Your Site News on why he and Nottingham Forest felt it was right to lodge their protest.
"It was a club thing," he said. "Tarky is a great person by the way so I did warn him, it's unlike him so it's not to do with the individuals involved, it's for the better good of the game sometimes, where you go 'hold on, that can't be right'.
"I've mentioned before, I've seen people touch strands of hair on their face and they go down, rolling around and they get sent off. People bring hands to people's faces, but you can't touch them or you get sent off.
"But seemingly, you're allowed to hit someone in the back - it was considerable I would suggest - and I think 'how did that get let off then' or not even looked at. I found it confusing if anything.
"It's nothing to do with the people involved or the club, but it's not good for the game if nothing is done about it... Sometimes, you've just got to stand up for more."
When asked what he expected to come from the complaint, Dyche added: "Just for the better good and that it doesn't happen again.
"In theory, if it was deemed a yellow card incident, you can imagine players will think 'I'll just go and do that then'. If you get annoyed one day, you can go and barge someone and it's OK because it's a yellow card incident. But that can't be right, surely?"
The incident was discussed on Your Site News' Ref Watch on Monday, and saw ex-Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher and former Cardiff striker Jay Bothroyd disagree over the decision.
Gallagher said: "When I watched the game, it didn't leap out to me.
"If the referee sees it, it's a yellow card - it never crosses my mind for it to be a red card."
But Bothroyd argued: "I think it is a red card because the ball has not gone to him yet, he's gone behind him, he's shoulder checked him in his back, maybe even higher.
"It's aggressive. He doesn't need to do it. I don't know why he's done it.
"Ultimately, that's a red card... you can see the way his head jolted back as well."
