Emergency meeting of Premier League referees summoned after recent blunders in officiating

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By Martin Graham | 14th Feb 2023

The chief of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body in charge of officiating Premier League games, Howard Webb, has summoned an emergency meeting over blunders in match officiating in recent Premier League outings.

Officiating in the Premier League has been a hot topic for as long as anyone can remember but since the advent of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, it seems to have gotten worse.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for Webb was the blatant errors made in the Arsenal vs Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion vs Crystal Palace games on Saturday. Both matches ended 1 – 1 but Arsenal and Brighton were disenfranchised due to incorrect calls by the referees and the VAR.

Another incident involving Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Mario Lemina also made the rounds. The former Southampton man was sent off with a second yellow card for just being one of three players running towards the referee Jarred Gillett to protest a decision in their game against his former side on Saturday.

Chelsea also felt slighted on Saturday following a controversial decision to not award them a penalty after West Ham United man Tomáš Souček stopped a goal-bound shot from Connor Gallagher in the box with his hand.

Arsenal and Brighton have been sent apologies by the PGMOL but it is too late because of the dogmatic football rule that the blast of the referee’s final whistle signifies the end of everything relating to a match.

“PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday,” a statement from the PGMOL read.

“Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed by PGMOL.”

Webb has now summoned an emergency meeting of all Premier League referees over the mishaps that occured on Saturday, especially that of Arsenal which is key in the title race.

Arsenal’s draw saw them fail to extend their lead at the top of the table by three points, instead giving them only a draw which Manchester City capitalised on to cut the gap to three points ahead of their midweek clash.

VAR for the game, Lee Mason, reportedly forgot to draw the offside lines while confirming Brentford’s equalising goal that came seven minutes after January signing Leandro Trossard had broken the deadlock for the Gunners. This led to them failing to notice that Danish defender Christian Norgaard was offside in the buildup to the goal, which was eventually scored by Ivan Toney.

According to reports, Webb could axe Mason and Jason Brooks, the VAR for the Brighton game who incorrectly ruled out Pervis Estupiñan’s goal to keep the scores at 1 – 1 in that game.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday.