Amateur hour from ‘Pro Ref’
Morning all.
Earlier this year, PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) rebranded as ‘Pro Ref’, and at the time Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb said, “Our focus is always on delivering the highest possible level of on-field performance.”
A statement at the time said, “Pro Ref has been developed through consultation with officials and staff, as well as our funding partners and wider football stakeholders, including the Football Supporters’ Association, and signifies a new chapter for the organisation whilst maintaining the same purpose – to uphold the integrity of the game and deliver the highest level of refereeing for the competitions we serve.”
Well, this weekend has been amateur hour for this organisation. I thought the decision in our game against Sunderland was bad, and I explained why in yesterday’s blog, but some people might say ‘Well, you would say that, you’re an Arsenal fan’. Which is fair enough, I suppose. I try and be as objective as I can when it comes to decisions that impact our games, but at the same time I recognise that when the team you support is involved, you view things through a slightly different lens.
When it comes to a game between Man Utd and Man City though, I have no skin in the game. I’m happy for them to kick seven shades of shit out of each other, and for us to be entertained by goals and red cards and injuries, but ultimately, this is not a game I’m invested in either way. There was a red card, for Phil Foden, and he does retaliate, but can anyone explain to me why – despite the fact Foden was daft for kicking out – Bruno Fernandes can escape without any sanction?
Foden reacts to Fernandes kicking him in the back when he’s on the ground. It’s not like he’s tried to leather him like a goal kick, but it’s still a kick in the back with no chance of getting the ball, and it’s certainly in the ballpark of violent conduct. Particularly when you look at how the Manchester United man reacted to Foden’s mild kick out. He was trying to provoke that retaliation, and he was ready to pull out the theatrics when it happened. It’s crazy that he gets away without even a booking, and my feeling is if you send Foden off, Fernandes deserves to go too.
But obviously that, as a talking point, was overtaken by what happened in the second half. Erling Haaland scored a goal from a position where he looked very offside at first glance, but it turned out Patrick Dorgu’s extended leg played him on. He tucked the ball away at the back post. The issue, however, was the presence of Enzo Fernandez in a completely offside position when the ball came in.
As they were looking at this passage of play in the VAR room, they decided that Fernandez was not interfering with play, which is remarkable when you look at what happened as the ball came across.
He literally throws himself through the air to try and head it. In the process he clearly interferes with Lisandro Martinez who, otherwise, could clear that ball away before it gets to Haaland. The last thing I want to do on a Monday morning is get up and write in defence of Lisandro Martinez or Man Utd, but we have to be honest and objective about this. How a trained official, and let’s not forget it’s not one but two of them on VAR, saw this and decided it wasn’t obvious interference is absurd.
Not long after the game, Pro Ref released a statement which said: The on-field decision was offside against Haaland – that was checked by VAR and he was found to be in an onside position.
In the same attack, it was established that Fernandez did not play the ball and therefore that makes any offside offence subjective, however, on this occasion, the VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review.
Contact has been made with Manchester United this evening to acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement. A review of the incident will take place.
Everyone’s human, we all make mistakes, but what good is an apology to Man Utd after the fact? Ultimately, they played with an extra man for much of this game, and some will deflect and say it’s their own fault for not taking advantage of that, but the two things are not mutually exclusive. They didn’t do enough against 10 men, and the Haaland goal was one of the worst decisions in Premier League refereeing history. It’s just not good enough that something like this can happen, not least because as I was watching, and chatting with people online, we all referenced the fact Fernandez tried to play the ball and was thus interfering with play. This wasn’t some hard to parse piece of play, or an obscure rule we don’t know fully. It was, to use some of Pro Ref’s parlance, clear and obvious.
To almost everybody, this is as clear cut an error as you will ever see. So, I have to say I found Enzo Maresca’s response really disappointing. Asked about it afterwards, he said:
I think Erling was onside and Enzo doesn’t interfere with the action.
I wish more managers would just be honest. You’ve already benefitted from the decision, they can’t take the goal or the three points away, so to come out with some bullshit like that is pathetic really. In many cases I get why they say what they do, our manager included at times, but in this instance it would cost him nothing to admit that he and Manchester City were the beneficiaries of a decision that, if it were the other way around, he would lose his mind over.
Reverse that situation and I can guarantee you 100% he’d be in post-game press conference complaining, and with good reason. If we are serious about improving refereeing standards, leaving inherent bias to one side for just a moment to admit the truth of the matter would be helpful. I think Maresca’s comments are actively harmful, and it reflects really poorly on him that he essentially lied, using the referee’s own words as a barrier to that. The fact that the ref’s organisation came out afterwards to admit the error makes the Italian look even worse.
Anyway, it is what it is. Howard Webb will do his TV show with Michael Owen and put on a sad face and sad voice when he discusses this, but ultimately it’s the same man in charge, the same men in the middle from the same part of England with no sign of widening the net to reflect the diversity of the Premier League or the country as a whole, and we’ll bitch and moan and point fingers until the next one of these. Because that’s the only thing you can 100% count on, something like this will happen again.
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Ok, I’ll leave it there for now, but stand by for an Arsecast Extra. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com, so fire away using the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
The pod should be out mid-morning. Until then, have a good one.
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