MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact announced on Monday that the suspension to goalkeeper Evan Bush for the Champions League decisive match against Club América will not be overturned.
Bush was shown a controversial yellow card in the 89th minute of the first leg of the final, last Wednesday at Estadio Azteca, a second caution for the American goalkeeper since the first game of the semifinal series, which is an automatic one-game suspension.
The Impact had immediately appealed the suspension to CONCACAF, the continental organization that organizes the tournament, but the appeal was rejected.
According to section 6.25 of the CONCACAF Champions League regulations, a decision of the referee in a match cannot be overturned following a protest.
"We believe that the card was a bad decision by the referee, but CONCACAF rules state that you can’t appeal a referee decision on a yellow card unless it was given to the wrong player,” said Impact technical director Adam Braz. “We continue to look at all our options for Wednesday’s match.”
In other news, approximately 2,000 additional tickets have been added for Wednesday’s game, at 8 pm, at Olympic Stadium. Tickets will go on sale on Monday at noon via ticketmaster.ca (1-855-790-1245) and the Impact sales offices (514-328-3668).
The Impact reminds supporters to arrive early at Olympic Stadium, at 7pm, to welcome the team on the field at 7:15pm for warmups and to participate in a huge blue-white-black mosaic for the pre-game. The organization also invites supporters to arrive early in order to avoid traffic around Olympic Park and the ticket queues to buy or pickup tickets, as well as at the entrance due to security procedures. It is highly recommended that you use the metro (access via the Pie-IX station). For more information on how to get to Olympic Stadium: http://parcolympique.qc.ca/comment-se-rendre
