Newcastle appeal of Coloccini red card is low-risk move

Newcastle United have announced that they are officially appealing the red card issued to club captain Fabricio Coloccini in the closing moments of the first half in Sunday's Wear-Tyne derby.  The club will know Tuesday whether or not the appeal is successful.  If it is not, Coloccini will be suspended for the weekend's match against Stoke City.

The incident in question has a large amount of gray area surrounding it. Applicable laws of the game indicate leave the situation open to some amount of interpretation which may have emboldened the club to decide to appeal, so there may be some degree of hope that the appeal will be successful.  It appears that even if the incident is adjudged to have been a penalty offense, Rob Elliot was the favorite to collect the ball ahead of Steven Fletcher which would presumably remove the "denial of clear goal scoring opportunity" and it's red-card penalty from play.

On the pessimistic side of things, it would seem that the FA is unlikely to reverse a decision that completely changed the complexion of a match to the point that a reversal would be tantamount to admitting that the result on the day was an unfair one.  It is undeniable that up to the incident in question Newcastle United were completely on top of the match and had complete control of the fixture.  Although there is no way to know what would have happened had the second half been played 11 v 11 following the opening goal, it seems likely that Newcastle would have been able to claw their way back into the match.  (Whether they eventually would have capitalized on a chance or not is a different question.)

If the appeal is not successful it would seem in this particular situation that a "frivolous appeal" extension of the suspension would not apply, so it's probably a nothing ventured/nothing gained kind of situation, but it still seems unlikely that Coloccini will be available for Stoke on Saturday.