A red card in a football match – but the team was allowed to replace the player

About twenty minutes into the friendly between FC Basel and Neuchâtel Xamax this afternoon, a Xamax player received a red card for a serious foul. After the players calmed down (and a Basel player received a yellow card, too), the referee and the head coaches had a discussion for several minutes. As everyone got ready to start play again, I noticed there were still eleven Xamax players on the field. The player who received the red card had been sent off, but Xamax had been allowed to replace him. I concluded that Basel did not want to play their friendly against a ten-man team and had thus arranged this unusual solution. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 10 July 2022)