Premier League boss facing FA charge for astonishing rant at 'biased' referees
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder is facing an FA charge for his astonishing rant on 'biased' referees after his side's 3-2 defeat against Crystal Palace on Tuesday.
He branded referee Tony Harrington's performance as "ridiculous" and also took aim at a linesman for eating a sandwich in a post-match meeting. Wilder was furious after Jean-Phillipe Mateta didn't receive a yellow card for colliding with Blades goalkeeper Iro Grbic, who was forced to go off with concussion.
Speaking after the match, Wilder said: "It's yet another ridiculous performance from the referee. I was told by a Premier League referee, who's as honest as the day is long, 'Get ready, because every tight decision will go against you, every 50-50 will go against you'.
"Their boy takes our keeper out, we had to change keepers. It makes no odds if it's an accident or not, it's a yellow card. Every tight decision goes against us.
"I'm not looking back over the last ten games, it's over a longer period, before I was here as well. Maybe the thought process is that, 'They won't be long in this division and I might be refereeing the other team next year, so I don’t want to upset too many people.'"
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It's unclear whether Wilder's sandwich rant was aimed at Dan Cook or Mark Scholes. Wilder has threatened to complain about the alleged bias to PGMOL chief Howard Webb. He added: "It's happened too many times for me not to say anything."
Now, according to The Sun, Wilder is facing an FA investigation and might be handed a charge for bringing the game into disrepute. He isn't the only Premier League boss to have slammed the standard of officiating this season after Roberto De Zerbi hit out at '80 per cent of English referees' in November.
(Getty Images)Wilder witnessed Sheffield United lose for the 17th time in 23 Premier League matches this season after they were thrashed 5-0 against Aston Villa on Saturday. The result leaves the Blades rock bottom, 10 points from safety with just two league victories since returning to the top-flight last summer.
"We were punished ruthlessly," he said after his side's heavy defeat. "It's a long way back from 4-0 down. Basic individual errors and organisational errors. I'll take the rap for that. It was an atheltic young side who got put to bed.
"Watkins' movement caused us a problem. Goals from Bailey and Tielemans were fabulous finishes. The goal just after half-time is difficult to take. I've been in that position as a player and a manager and there's no hiding place.
"You have to take your medicine. We have to accept that and apologise to our supporters because they've been superb. We've let them down this evening. We had a couple of really good chances to take the lead and then we've gone chasing. We've got excited. We've left big holes and they've picked us off."
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