Another Team Has Escalated The Growing Cold War Between The Premier League’s Clubs And Its Refs

The 2023-24 Premier League season has unfortunately been defined by a growing officiating crisis, as the clubs that comprise the world’s most famous football league have been taking increasingly hostile action toward the PGMOL, which is effectively the country’s union of referees.

The first notable event came back in September when Liverpool Football Club put out a statement saying that the “sporting integrity” of the league has been “undermined” due to an officiating mishap that saw a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out. Liverpool would go on to lose that match by a score of 2-1.

Arsenal also wrote a letter to the PGMOL after a defeat to Newcastle United. Before this weekend, Nottingham Forest had written to the PGMOL on three separate occasions.

Earlier this month, Wolverhampton Wanderers chairman Jeff Shi — following multiple instances in which the club believes officiating mishaps have cost them points — urged the PGMOL to “address concerns to uphold the integrity of the competition.”

“This is on top of the managers who consistently bring up decisions made against their team, including but not limited to Jurgen Klopp, who among other things got a two-match ban last season for saying he doesn’t know ‘what Paul Tierney has against us’; Vincent Kompany, who said earlier this season that Burnley have a ‘tough relationship’ with referees; and Chris Wilder, who described referee Tony Harrington as giving “yet another ridiculous performance.” [via The Athletic]

The growing cold war between the Premier League clubs and its refs took another step forward over the weekend following Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 loss to Everton in a crucial relegation battle match, as the club published a tweet that has proved to be quite divisive in the football world, which responses ranging from “disgraceful” to “necessary.”

“Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept. We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times. NFFC will now consider its options,” the club tweeted on Sunday, April 21 after the match.

The following day, Nottingham doubled down by publicly calling for the PGMOL to release the audio tapes of the match’s controversial decisions.

“Nottingham Forest has today submitted a formal request to the PGMOL to release into the public domain the audio recordings between officials during yesterday’s match against Everton at Goodison Park,” Nottingham’s statement reads.

“The club has requested this be shared for three key match incidents – Ashley Young’s challenge on Giovanni Reyna (24th minute), Ashley Young’s handball (44th minute) and Ashley Young’s challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi (56th minute). We firmly advocate for the broader football community and supporters to have access to the audio and transcript for full transparency, ensuring the integrity of our sport is upheld,” the statement concluded.

While the Premier League confirmed earlier this month that it would be introducing semi-automated offside technology next season, its officiating crisis has deepened, and confidence in the institution has eroded, to such an extent that those involved with the game — owners, players, coaches, and fans — seem to no longer believe the PGMOL are capable of making competent subjective calls.

The public condemnation of the PGMOL by Nottingham comes on the same weekend that questions were asked of leading official Michael Oliver, who failed to give a penalty against Man City in the FA Cup Semifinal against Chelsea. Similarly, Oliver didn’t award a penalty to Liverpool after a clear high boot by City winger Jeremy Doku in March.

Oliver’s involvement is notable because he was reportedly freelancing in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year, which is the nation-state that owns Manchester City.

The other FA Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Coventry City also had its own official-related controversy as Coventry had its game-winning fourth goal ruled out due to a suspect offside decision.

The Premier League’s officiating crisis could still become worse this season should Liverpool lose the title by a point as it would likely bring the Diaz error back into focus, in addition to multiple PGMOL officials receiving paychecks from the UAE.