Micah Richards condemns controversial Premier League decision: 'One of the worst I've ever seen'

Micah Richards expressed his frustration with a contentious refereeing call in the recent Premier League match, labeling it as "one of the most outrageous decisions I've witnessed."

While his former sides Manchester City and Aston Villa secured victories on Saturday against West Ham and Leicester, respectively, the game involving the team Richards supported in his childhood actually angered him most.

Arsenal and Brighton and Hove Albion played out a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off, with Joao Pedro cancelling out Kai Havertz's first-half opener. Declan Rice received a red card early in the second half, though, after Chris Kavanagh brandished the England midfielder with his second yellow card.

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Having been booked for a foul earlier on in the game, Rice then received his marching orders when he kicked the ball away from Joel Veltman, who was attempting to take a free-kick. 

Rice's sending off has clearly angered Richards, though, who was left seething with Kavanagh's decision.

"Honestly, I think that was one of the worst decisions I've ever seen," Richards claimed on The Rest is Football podcast. "I'm not being biased here. I'm being totally neutral to whatever. He kicks the ball away. So in my mind, I think that's probably time wasting. That's the first point. The second point is Veltman. I've played in that position a lot of the time - he's going to argue that he's trying to play a quick free-kick. 

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"That's nonsense: if you're going to play a quick free-kick, you do not throw the ball five yards in front of you. You put your hand on the ball and then you pass it or whatever you want to do. And you don't take a quick free kick there anyway, because you wait for your team to be set. So then he throws the ball. It looks like he's going to kick it. Get the reverse angle of the game. There's nobody in the space where he's about to kick it anyway.

"The ball comes to Declan Rice. Now, I could understand if Declan Rice moved towards the ball and kicked the ball away. He's running back, he sees the ball, and he just gives it a little tap, that's just a natural reaction. So yes, the argument from the other side is that you shouldn't touch the ball or kick the ball. But I don't even think he kicked it away. I just think it was like when the ball comes to you on the pitch and it's near you, and you just try to stop it or kick it to wherever it's going. It's gone now."

Richards continued, highlighting his initial thinking when the incident first happened.

"It's kicked at [Rice], and you could argue it could be a red card. When I first saw the incident, I was thinking he's going to get sent off here. Veltman, I slowed it down. And look, you slow everything down, there's a little nick on it. But there's no way, there's no way in history that should be a second yellow card. I just can't get on board with that. If that's a yellow card, then football has officially gone. You can't give a yellow card."

Listen to ‘The Rest Is Football’ wherever you get your podcasts.

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