Nottingham Forest have been denied the opportunity to take Howard Webb to task over the standard of Premier League refereeing after it was learned that the head of elite match officials would miss a key meeting in London on Thursday.
Webb had been expected to provide a refereeing update at the first Premier League shareholders’ meeting of the new season, but it has since been confirmed he will not appear.
A number of top-flight clubs – including Forest and near rivals Leicester City – are unhappy at what they claim are errors by officials in the early weeks of the season, and had intended to grill Webb over refereeing standards at the meeting.
Forest were at the centre of several controversies surrounding VAR last season, the most serious coming in their defeat at Everton when they questioned the integrity of VAR official Stuart Attwell and were on the receiving end of misconduct charges.
Many elite teams, particularly Forest and close rivals Leicester City, are upset about what they perceive to be mistakes made by referees in the first few weeks of the season and had planned to question Webb about standards of refereeing during the meeting.
Last season, Forest was embroiled in a number of VAR-related disputes; the most significant occurred during their loss to Everton, when they questioned the objectivity of VAR official Stuart Attwell and were accused of misconduct.
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Their most recent run-in with the referees was during Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Brighton, when Morgan Gibbs-White‘s second yellow card offense resulted in head coach Nuno Espirito Santo receiving a red card. After Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler received a red card as well, the FA has now charged all three of them with improper conduct.
Former Forest manager Steve Cooper, the manager of Leicester, accused Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta of making “an awful human error” when he scored against the Foxes on September 14.
The most well-known events occurred during Sunday’s 2-2 draw at the Etihad between Manchester City and Arsenal. Arsenal’s first equalizer was spurred on by the red card given to Leandro Trossard, and City felt that referee Michael Oliver had erred in the lead-up.
Webb, the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Ltd.) chief refereeing officer, does not appear to be attending the meeting, though. Rather, clubs are anticipated to receive a briefing from Tony Scholes, the Premier League’s chief football officer. Webb is not present at all of the meetings.
Scholes, the former CEO of Stoke City, is a board member of PGMOL, as reported by the Times. It continues: “Scholes can expect questions about refereeing, as well as the timetable for the introduction of the semi-automated offside system, which is due this autumn.”
Webb has not yet directly addressed the most recent Forest incident. The PGMOL, however, insists that the majority of the contested calls were made correctly by officials and reminds clubs that their performances are regularly evaluated by an impartial commission to provide more responsibility.
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