Howard Webb has been urged by one of his predecessors as PGMOL chief refereeing officer to bring in one significant course of action involving Premier League match officials.
In making his point when speaking to Football Insider, Keith Hackett referred to the chaotic aftermath of Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Everton in February, when Michael Oliver issued red cards to Arne Slot and Sipke Hulshoff after the final whistle when the Reds boss and his assistant confronted the whistler.
The visitors were left fuming over contentious decisions involving both of the Toffees’ goals that night, including James Tarkowski’s equaliser in the eighth minute of stoppage time after a clear foul on Ibrahima Konate in the build-up went unpunished by the officials.
Ex-PGMOL chief calls for post-match interviews with referees
Ex-PGMOL chief Hackett has called for referees to go in front of live TV cameras and explain their rationale behind decisions with perceived controversy, citing double standards with how managers are obliged to face the music in public within minutes of seeing their team fall to defeat.
The former Premier League official said: “Passion is the driver, and a sense of fair play. Managers need to recognise that referees will sometimes make errors, and sometimes they’re compounded because they have an effect on the game.
“As a result of that, it’s not expecting managers to bite their tongues, but to be more considered. In terms of fines and punishments, there is a sliding scale that managers will be aware of.
“The pressure that managers are under… a loss is now almost a sentence of losing their job, not that Slot was ever in that position. The referee’s performance on the day was not good enough, let’s make no mistake.
“We need improved standards of behaviour and improved standards of officiating. There’s an unfairness that referees are never interviewed after the match, but the manager is, with all the disappointment or elation. The mind is spinning at that point.
“With post-match interviews with referees, I tried to start that as the boss of the PGMOL. Within almost hours of Rob Styles doing it, the management of a club was absolutely incensed, as they thought the process of appealing a red card had been taken away. As a result of that, it was killed off by the Premier League.”
Something for Webb and the PGMOL to consider?
Hackett has raised an interesting argument, and we think that it’s one with plenty of credence.
Managers, players, pundits and fans will never reach a full consensus over major decisions, such is the tribal nature of football, but if referees were mandated to come out and publicly explain the rationale behind their calls, it might at least improve transparency and understanding of the decision-making process.
If Oliver was obliged to talk through the Merseyside derby flashpoints in front of TV cameras shortly after the final whistle, it would’ve been most intriguing to have heard his reasoning for allowing Tarkowski’s last-gasp equaliser, for instance.
Slot’s anger at the officials that night was justified, even if his post-match comments to the referee didn’t portray him in the best light.
It’s something that the PGMOL ought to consider, although Webb would also be well advised to hold his referees to higher standards than what they’ve exhibited in the Premier League over the past few seasons.
Six years into the usage of VAR, the process is still executed in amateurish fashion far too often, and some decisions from match officials (such as the failure to send off Tarkowski for his dangerous lunge on Alexis Mac Allister at Anfield in April) are simply unjustifiable.
It’s in the best interests of every top-flight club – not just the Reds – for match officials to avoid the sort of glaring errors which undermine the division’s credibility as the foremost domestic league on the planet.
