Howard Webb’s response to Man Utd blunder meant nothing - he must be accountable

18 August 2023 , 15:00

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Chief of referees Howard Webb must be held accountable for mistakes (Image: Getty Images)

Stuff your apologies – instead of saying sorry every week, referees and VAR officials need to get it right.

I'm a big fan of PGMOL's chief refereeing officer Howard Webb. He is trying to communicate, be transparent and explain these new rules on timekeeping and conduct in the technical area.

But unfortunately, there were too many apologies for his officials' blunders last season, and we've started the 2023-24 campaign in a similar, depressing vein. There comes a point where Webb has to be accountable, and Wolves manager Gary O'Neil has every right to feel he got a raw deal at Old Trafford on Monday night.

‌Have things got any better since Mike Riley was in charge of PGMOL officials?

It's bad enough that O'Neil's side was denied a blatant penalty – an obvious stone-waller – despite VAR Michael Salisbury studying what most people thought was Manchester United keeper Andre Onana wiping out Sasa Kalajdzic in added time.

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It was an absolute joke that O'Neil should be shown the yellow card for his understandably emotional reaction to the travesty. Webb's apology to Wolves that they were not awarded a penalty doesn't make any difference.

There's no point in saying sorry when they didn't get the spot-kick. There's no point in saying sorry when they are denied a deserved point - if they had scored from it – on the road.

‌And there is no point in dropping referee Simon Hooper and Salisbury for one match. They will be back next week – Wolves won't get that point back.‌ Their players would have been raging on the bus all the way home, and I felt for them.

‌Salisbury was the VAR who made a succession of poor decisions in last season's Tottenham-Brighton game, which was a low point in a season of VAR debacles.

Howard Webb’s response to Man Utd blunder meant nothing - he must be accountable

Wolves were robbed of the chance of scoring an equaliser vs Man Utd

‌If officials monitoring the screens at Stockley Park do not fully understand what they are looking at, let's give them some help – like ex-players who understand the modern game and its flashpoints.

The man on the moon could have seen it was a penalty, so why can't a VAR on planet earth? Pathetic. O'Neil's caution then added insult to injury. You can't book a manager for showing emotion and passion on the touchline when his team has been robbed.

‌I defy anyone involved in professional sport just to sit there, and go through what the Wolves manager did, without batting an eyelid. Yes, we want decent standards of behaviour in the technical area, but we also don't want robots.

We're already trying to get our heads round the new crackdown on timewasting and dissent – although it would help to apply the rules with common sense. West Brom goalkeeper Josh Griffiths was booked for timewasting in the closing minutes of his side's League Cup defeat at Stoke when the Baggies were 2-1 DOWN. How does that work?

‌And I know of a non-League game where there were 13 yellow cards – not one of them for a bad tackle. Yes, let's stop waving imaginary cards or kicking the ball away. But let's also make sure we punish challenges which cause injuries or endanger opponents' safety before we nail full-backs for taking too long over a throw-in.

‌Back in 2006, when I was playing for Blackburn, there was a big crackdown on shirt-pulling in the box, and Brad Friedel saved two penalties – both awarded for tugging shirts - in a 0-0 draw at Sheffield United.