Premier League official rules to hand £40m Newcastle United star two-match ban - on one condition

The Brazilian has been booked eight times in the Premier League so far this season but managed to avoid a card in last weekend’s 3-1 win at Southampton. But he remains just two bookings away from a two-match ban in the Premier League with Fulham up next at St James’ Park on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

Joelinton has already served a one-match ban after picking up five bookings inside Newcastle’s opening 19 matches of the Premier League season - missing last month’s trip to Ipswich Town.

Having picked up three more bookings since returning from suspension, Joelinton must now go the next nine Premier League matches without picking up a further two yellow cards or else he will be banned for two matches. It wouldn’t be the first time Joelinton has served such a suspension as, during the 2022-23 season, he missed two matches after picking up 10 bookings.

Joelinton was shown his eighth yellow card against Bournemouth last time out at St James’ Park following a foul and subsequent tussle with Justin Kluivert. Newcastle went on to lose the match 4-1.

What Premier League rules say about bookings

Premier League rules state that any player who accumulates 10 bookings inside the opening 32 Premier League matches must serve a two-match ban.

While Joelinton is close to a ban, no other Newcastle players are at serious risk just yet. Dan Burn has six bookings to his name and Fabian Schar has five with both defenders already serving a one-match suspension for yellow cards this season.

Sandro Tonali has four bookings and would have to be booked six times in Newcastle’s next nine league games in order to be banned. Bruno Guimaraes and Lewis Hall have been booked three times while Lloyd Kelly, Sean Longstaff, Jacob Murphy, Nick Pope and Joe Willock have two bookings.

Sven Botman, Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak, Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson all have one yellow card each.

After the 10 booking, 32 game threshold is passed - any player shown 15 bookings over the course of the season is handed a three-match ban. To date, no player has ever been cautioned that many times during a single Premier League campaign.

Do bookings impact cup competitions?

For those panicking about a potential FA Cup run or Carabao Cup final on the horizon, booking suspensions are competition-specific. So a suspension picked up as a result of accumulating yellow cards in the Premier League is served only in the Premier League while a suspension picked up in the cup competitions is served in that specific competition.

But the rules are different for red cards, which do transcend competitions. Newcastle found that out when they reached the Carabao Cup final in 2023 when Bruno Guimaraes was sent off in the semi-final second leg against Southampton and missed the three following matches for Newcastle which all happened to be in the Premier League before being back available for the final.

But Nick Pope wasn’t so fortunate after his sending-off in the Premier League against Liverpool led to him missing the final at Wembley Stadium as Newcastle lost 2-0 to Manchester United.