Xavi Simons had one word for the decision to let Jayden Bogle stay on at Elland Road: “Difference?”
The Tottenham playmaker, who is still working his way back from a knee injury, posted screenshots of Bogle’s challenge on Mathys Tel next to his own red card against Liverpool last season. Same referee, a very similar foul, and two completely different outcomes.
He wasn’t the only one asking the question after Spurs’ 1-0 defeat at Leeds. Former players and a former Premier League official were split on whether Bogle should have walked, and Tottenham are writing to Pro Ref, the referees’ body, for an explanation.
What did Xavi Simons post?
Xavi Simons put the two incidents side by side on his Snapchat story, with the caption “Difference?” He didn’t need to add anything else.
The comparison is with December 2025, when Spurs lost 2-1 to Liverpool. Simons caught Virgil van Dijk, his Netherlands team-mate, in a challenge much like Bogle’s. John Brooks first showed him a yellow card, but the VAR sent him to the pitchside monitor and the yellow became a straight red.
Brooks was the referee again on Saturday. This time he gave a foul but no card, he was never sent to the screen, and Bogle escaped without even a booking.
Simons hasn’t played since his ACL injury, but his recovery is going well. As we reported this week, he is ahead of schedule and close to team training, which is due to come later this month.
Why wasn’t Bogle sent off?
Late in the first half, Bogle was shaping to play the ball with his right foot and, as he planted his left, stood on the back of Mathys Tel‘s ankle. Tel needed treatment, tried to carry on, and was replaced by Dominic Solanke in the 43rd minute.
The VAR, Tony Harrington, spent around four to five minutes on the review. His view was that there was a lack of speed in the challenge and that Bogle was stepping into it, which made it reckless rather than serious foul play. A reckless challenge is a yellow card, and the VAR can’t step in to recommend a booking, so Bogle got away with nothing.
Hoddle: in real time, it was a yellow
Glenn Hoddle, who played for and managed Spurs, thought the officials got it about right. He told TNT Sports that slow-motion replays make challenges look worse than they are.
“In real time, I thought it was probably a yellow. This is the problem we have. The game isn’t played in slow motion. In real time, I’m not thinking that’s a red card by any means. When you see it from this view, if the referee’s sent over to the screen, this will be a red card,” Hoddle said.
He pointed to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s red card against Spurs a week earlier, when the referee was sent to the monitor and changed his mind: “I think they tried to prevent the referee going over. Because, for me, in real time, that looked like a booking, it looked like a foul. There was no violent play, he hasn’t gone in there to go over the top of the ball.”
Cann and Murphy: Bogle was lucky
Darren Cann, a former Premier League assistant referee, saw it the other way. “Jayden Bogle was, in my opinion, very fortunate to escape a red card for a challenge on Mathys Tel,” he told BBC Sport. “Bogle stood on the back of Tel’s Achilles and the challenge was similar to Ryan Sessegnon’s red card challenge for Fulham against Hull a few weeks ago.”
He added: “Bogle’s challenge meets the criteria for serious foul play as he endangers the safety of an opponent, and he can consider himself lucky to still be on the pitch.”
Danny Murphy agreed that recent decisions made it hard to defend. “We saw similar red cards recently for Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ryan Sessegnon, where I don’t think there was any real intent to hurt the opponent,” the former midfielder said. “I wouldn’t necessarily mind a world where that doesn’t result in a sending off but the way the laws are, if they are red cards then Jayden Bogle should also have been dismissed.”
The Mateta precedent
That is what makes this one so awkward for the officials. Mateta was sent off for catching Micky van de Ven on the Achilles at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 31 October, and Crystal Palace’s appeal against that red card was turned down this week. One Achilles contact earned a three-match ban; a week later, another earned nothing at all.
Is the Simons comparison fair?
We think it is. You can argue Hoddle’s point that Bogle had no intent, and there is a case that standing on an opponent while planting a foot naturally carries less force than a lunge. But Simons and Mateta weren’t trying to hurt anyone either, and both were sent off once the referee saw a replay.
The problem on Saturday wasn’t really the verdict. It was that Brooks never got to look. Captain Micky van de Ven made the same point after the game, as we covered in De Zerbi’s post-match reaction: when a check takes that long, the referee can always be called to the screen. Leeds had every right to their win, and Okafor’s late goal had nothing to do with the decision, but Spurs are entitled to ask why one rule seemed to apply in December and another this weekend.
