England referees chief apologises to Iwobi’s Everton over penalty decision
England referees chief has apologised to Iwobi’s Everton over the penalty decision against Manchester City.
Rodri, a Man City midfielder, had handled the ball in the box, and video replays showed that his hand had made direct contact with the ball.
The center referee and the VAR official, on the other hand, were unconcerned about the incident, allowing Man City to win by a slender 1-0 margin.
Everton’s bench and players were incensed at the decision.
Alex Iwobi and his Everton colleagues watched in astonishment as centre referee Paul Tierney and VAR referee Chris Kavanagh denied them a chance to level the score against Manchester City, the league leaders.
England referees chief apology
Mike Riley, the Premier League Game Officials Limited’s General Manager, is said to have personally apologized to Everton Chairman Bill Kenwright and coach Frank Lampard.
Everton’s Chief Executive, Denise Barrett-Baxendale, on Monday wrote to the Premier League and demanded an apology as they expressed the club’s concerns.
Lampard had said after the game that the decision made them lose what they deserved from the game.
“The decision is incredible, incredible, and that loses us the opportunity to get what we deserved,” Lampard said.
“That’s a VAR call.” That’s Chris Kavanagh, I spoke to the referee and they know it is a penalty, the question is that is it offside and it wasn’t.
“That’s the reason we have VAR. It wouldn’t have needed more than five seconds to know it was a penalty. He [Kavanagh] should have either told the referee to give it or told him to go look at it.
“We’ve lost a point because of a professional who cannot do his job right. You start searching for whys and I can’t think why. It is so incompetent to get it wrong.
“Pep [Guardiola] will know, Everton fans will know, Man City fans will know, it was the clearest penalty you could give: arm is out – great, below the sleeve – great, I was waiting for the penalty.
“Incompetence at best, at worst who knows? I’ll wait for the statement or apology they do when things are wrong but it will mean nothing.”
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