Andoni Iraola facing touchline ban after referee mix-up

Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola faces a touchline ban after being booked in a mix-up by referee Tony Harrington.

Iraola said it was “confusing” that he was cautioned in his side’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield after a miscommunication when the officials thought he was asking for a yellow card for one of Arne Slot’s team.

The Spaniard was actually trying to point out that Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez, who had been in an offside position, then became active in play when he went to close down defender Milos Kerkez.

It was Iraola’s third booking of the season and he will now be suspended for next Monday’s match against Southampton with Bournemouth unable to appeal the yellow card.

Iraola told the BBC: “There has been a misunderstanding. They booked me because I asked for a yellow card, and I was asking just for offside. They [the players] haven’t done one foul, nothing, to ask for a yellow card. He told me ‘you cannot ask for a yellow card’…”

“I asked for an offside because he doesn’t go for the ball but after he goes to press, Darwin, from the offside position, and we have to play back to the keeper. I think the referee doesn’t want to stop it, he leaves it go, but it is bad for us, you know? It’s not an advantage for us and I was asking, ‘No, no, it’s offside, give us the offside’, that’s what I was asking. He told me straight away, ‘you cannot ask for a yellow card’. I know, already, I have paid my price in the season before, I know I cannot do this, but I hope we can overturn it.”

Iraola was also booked in last week’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea, along with a record 14 players, and August’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle.