Football
AAP 7y

Besart Berisha's red card rescinded after panel admits 'obvious error'

Melbourne Victory striker Besart Berisha is free to play against Wellington on Tuesday after his controversial A-League red card against Brisbane was rescinded.

Berisha was issued a straight red 59 minutes into Friday night's five-goal thriller for a perceived arm to the face of Roar defender Luke DeVere.

Referee Chris Beath acted on the word of the linesman, who signalled to stop play and send Berisha off even though the contact appeared minimal.

After an application from Victory, the match review panel on Sunday ruled the decision had been made in "obvious error" and expunged the red card from Berisha's record.

The panel, sitting a day early, came to its decision just in time for the Albanian marksman to get on a plane to New Zealand, where Victory will play their rescheduled clash with the Phoenix.

Berisha's absence would have been a massive hit to the second-placed title-chasers in their biggest week of the season, with a trip to Perth coming just four days later.

Both Victory coach Kevin Muscat and his Roar counterpart John Aloisi agreed he shouldn't have been sent off, with the former revealing DeVere had found him to apologise.

"Luke DeVere comes up to me after the game and he was embarrassed," Muscat said.

"He said 'I wasn't making a meal of it, it was accidental and I told the referee that.'

"It was the linesman who made the decision. Bes is really unlucky.

"I haven't come across anyone who said it was a red card."

^ Back to Top ^