It was pleasing to see the red card Nick Ward received on Sunday against the Newcastle Jets rescinded. It wasn’t a red card offence and has been rightly expunged.

But only half of the job has been done.

The red card later issued by referee Matt Gillett to Tim Brown (or more correctly, the second yellow which led to the red) also needs to be wiped from the record, leaving Brown free to play against Perth on Sunday.

I don’t need to write any more words about the ridiculousness of the decision to show Brown the second yellow.  Everyone who has seen it agrees it was ill-judged at best and ludicrous at worst.

But even though everyone, including referees’ boss Mark Shield (and I’m sure Gillett himself) agrees the wrong decision was made, Brown’s one-match suspension still stands.

That’s just wrong.

It’s like being issued a speeding ticket, the police then admitting they had the speed camera cranked up too high and had wrongly read your speed, but still insisting you pay the fine.

Brown did nothing wrong.  Everyone agrees on that.  And yet he’s being punished.

This is a perfect opportunity for the powers-that-be at FFA to do the right thing – to come out and say, “The ref got it wrong so we’re going to put it right”.

It would earn them huge kudos as a progressive and fair-minded organisation.

Some might say that it would create a precedent.  If so, then great.  If a precedent is created to right the wrongs of poor refereeing, then that’s fantastic.  There already exists an appeal process for wrongly issued straight red cards, so why shouldn’t that extend to yellows that lead to reds as well?  Surely all we want is fairness?

If Brown’s red is rescinded, no-one loses.  Who would protest?  No-one.

But if it stands, both Brown and Phoenix lose out on a decision which has been admitted by everyone was not only totally incorrect but utterly incomprehensible.

This isn’t a Phoenix issue.  I’d feel the same way if this happened to a player from any other team.

The bottom line is that Tim Brown’s suspension has been universally acknowledged as unfair, yet still stands.  Something needs to be done about it.