The figure doing the rounds since the weekend compares the start of this season with the average for the whole of the previous one. That comparison automatically inflates the gap. Set against what it should be compared with, the first two rounds of previous seasons, the increase is real but on a different scale.
2.56 cards per match
Across the sixteen matches of the first two rounds, referees showed 37 yellow cards and 4 reds, a total of 41 cards and an average of 2.56 per match.
At the same stage last season, over the same number of matches, the count was 35 yellows and 3 reds, or 38 cards and 2.38 per match. The difference is therefore three cards over sixteen matches, a rise of 7.6%.
Measured against the average for the whole 2025-2026 season, which was 1.91 cards per match, the same start does show a 34% rise. It is that second figure that has been circulating.
Why the comparison does not stand up
The start of a season cannot be compared with an entire season. The first two rounds are played with reshaped squads, combinations still being built and often in intense heat, and they account for sixteen matches out of the 240 in the regular season.
Above all, the gap between the opening rounds and the average does not always point the same way. In 2023-2024, the first two rounds produced 2.38 cards per match in a season that averaged 1.81. But in 2024-2025 it was the reverse: 1.81 at the start for a season at 2.07. So the start of the league is not systematically more heavily penalised than the rest of the campaign.
Four seasons, four starts
| season | Rounds 1 and 2 | regular season |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-2027 | 2.56 | in progress |
| 2025-2026 | 2.38 | 1.91 |
| 2024-2025 | 1.81 | 2.07 |
| 2023-2024 | 2.38 | 1.81 |
The finding that holds up is more modest than the headline, and it is still true: at 2.56 cards per match, Pro D2 has indeed had its most heavily penalised start of the last four seasons. The four red cards equal the 2023-2024 total, which until now was the highest over two rounds.
Method
Cards are counted from regular-season match sheets, with the knockout stage excluded. A red card resulting from two yellows is counted as the two yellows that led to it, in line with how the match sheets are recorded. The 2026-2027 season has so far only played its first two rounds, which rules out any comparison of full-season averages before it ends.
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