A refereeing controversy reared its ugly head once again this season as Everton was denied a clear penalty during their Merseyside derby game against Liverpool, with pundit Richard Keys claiming the decision to not look at the challenge is ‘madness’.
Everton finds themselves in the bottom three after Sunday’s disappointing 2-0 loss away at Liverpool and Burnley’s impressive 1-0 home win against eighth-placed Wolves. The Toffees did well throughout the first 60 minutes of the game, frustrating Liverpool as they looked to hold onto a well-fought point.
Unfortunately for Everton fans, their bitter rivals managed to break the deadlock in the 62nd minute after Andy Robertson got himself on the end of a Mo Salah cross and headed home with fan favourite Divock Origi putting the game to bed in the 85th minute with a close-range effort that goalkeeper Jordan Pickford could not keep out.
However, the controversial moment of the game came in the 53rd minute as Everton youngster Anthony Gordon was brought down in the penalty area by defender Joel Matip but the challenge was waved off by referee Stuart Atwell, much to the anger and confusion of fans, players, and pundits.
BeIn SPORTs pundit and host Richard Keys took to Twitter after the game, calling out the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) for their lack of action after it was released they would have supported Atwell’s decision to give a penalty if he had done so.
He wrote, “PGMOL tell us that that they would’ve had ‘no complaints’ had Attwell given Everton a penalty Anfield Rd end. So my question is ‘why didn’t they ask the ref to go and look at it – & make his own mind up’? It was a pen. That the match day centre make the decisions is madness”.
Should PGMOL have gotten invovled with the penalty decision?Yes
No
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TIF Thoughts on Keys tweet…
Refereeing controversies have been a consistent factor throughout this Premier League season and it is clear that PGMOL either needs to do a better job in training the officials in the new laws that have come in since VAR has been introduced, or they need to be more hands-on when it comes to stepping in when the referee has got the decision wrong, or not made one at all.
We cannot have these types of mistakes and confusion when it comes to a referee’s decision and why they have chosen it any longer, it is ruining the game of football for a lot of fans and it needs to be sorted as soon as possible.