When Darren Purse clattered into Andrew Cole's shin at Turf Moor on Saturday, forcing the striker to have 10 stitches to sew up the gaping hole in his leg, West Midlands referee Andy Hall deemed the tackle a red card offence.

Notions of an appeal from Cardiff were met with much hilarity in these parts, as picture and video evidence back up Hall's decision.

How could you possibly appeal the punishment for a challenge which was reckless at best, involved excessive force and endangered the safety of an opponent?

Burnley have found, to their cost this season, that, unless you can conclusively prove innocence, the chances are an appeal will be deemed as frivolous.

However, here is where the problem lies.

Of the 92 clubs in the Premier and Football League, 89 are dealt with by the English FA, while Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham are under the umbrella of the FA of Wales.

On Tuesday, the following statement appeared on the FAW website: "A Disciplinary Panel met at the Football Association of Wales offices on Tuesday, 29th April 2008 to consider a Claim of Wrongful Dismissal for the sending-off for serious foul play of Darren Purse of Cardiff City FC in the Football League Championship match, Burnley FC v Cardiff City FC played on 26th April 2008.

"Having carefully considered the written and DVD evidence submitted, the Panel decided that the 'Claim' be upheld and the three match standard punishment be withdrawn."

It was a ridiculous outcome.

Video evidence neither proved Joey Gudjonsson's guilt, nor absolved him, after he was dismissed against Preston in December.

The outcome – a fourth game to his ban for a frivolous appeal.
Purse's challenge was, in my opinion, worse than Chris McCann's against Preston, John Spicer's at Ipswich and Kyle Lafferty's against Arsenal – arguably even worse than Martin Taylor's challenge on Eduardo.

All three Burnley players correctly received red cards, Lafferty somewhat harshly, although I can see why the referee deemed it a sending-off offence.

But Purse gets away scot-free, without the offence even being down-graded to a booking.

You could kick the ball away in frustration, and receive a worse punishment than sending a player cart-wheeling, with what looks like a sharkbite on his shin.

Purse insists there was no malice or intent, but that is irrelevant. Do you think Taylor meant for Eduardo to emerge with a fractured left fibula and an open dislocation of his left ankle?

What sort of message have the FA of Wales sent out?

We talk about respect for referees and officials, but what sort of example is this?

It is akin to telling players at grass roots level that they can launch into tackles like Purse, with no thought of the consequences.

Purse could, quite easily, have broken Cole's leg, if his foot had been planted in the turf.

The problem is, this isn't the first time the FA of Wales have been lenient on their own members.

On November 4th 2006, Cardiff midfielder Stephen McPhail was sent off in a 3-1 defeat at Colchester for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity in the last minute of the game, with Jamie Cureton scoring from the spot.

However, McPhail's red card was overturned by the FAW, and he was available for the next game, which was against Burnley at Ninian Park, where he played the 90 minutes in a 1-0 win for the Bluebirds.

A player should be sent off if he denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player's goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick.

That was a farce, and this latest decision is abhorrent.

I wrote on Tuesday about Cardiff seeming to get what they want at the moment.

The FA have bent overbackwards to accomodate their demands after reaching the FA Cup Final, and now this.

The time has come, surely, for the Welsh clubs who play in English football to be administered by the English FA, or they should jolly along and play in the Welsh Premier League.