Nottingham Forest and rival Premier League clubs take on Howard Webb amid refereeing row

Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo and Morgan Gibbs-White
-Credit: (Image: Getty)


Premier League clubs including Nottingham Forest are said to be ready to confront referees' chief Howard Webb over a spate of alleged officiating errors this season.

Webb, head of PGMOL, the body responsible for elite referees, is set to face tough questions on the quality of refereeing when he updates clubs at the season's inaugural top-flight shareholders' meeting this Thursday, according to The Times.

Teams such as Forest, Leicester City and Bournemouth have expressed grievances over what they perceive as incorrect or inconsistent decisions by referees since the season began just five games ago. Meanwhile, Manchester City and Arsenal claimed mistakes by Michael Oliver impacted on the outcome of their 2-2 Etihad draw on Sunday.

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.

Their latest run-in with officials came during Sunday's 2-2 draw at Brighton when head coach Nuno Espirito Santo was shown a red card following Morgan Gibbs-White's second yellow card offence. Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler was also shown a red card, and all three have now been charged by the FA with improper conduct.

Leicester boss Steve Cooper - a former Forest manager - attributed "an awful human error" for Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta being ruled onside when scoring against the Foxes on September 14.

Webb has yet to address the latest Forest incident directly. However, the PGMOL maintains that most of disputed decisions were called correctly by officials, while also reminding clubs that referees' performances are continually scrutinised by an independent panel to ensure greater accountability.

One of Nuno’s assistants, Rui Pedro Silva, faced the media after the full-time whistle at the Amex on Sunday. Of Gibbs-White's dismissal, he said: "I didn’t see anything that justified a second yellow card from my point of view on the bench."

As for the Nuno red card, he added: “I didn’t hear anything from the mouth of Nuno that justified a red card. Of course it’s very emotional and you are going to defend your player and your team, but saying something that goes against the referee? No. I didn’t hear anything from the mouth of Nuno that justifies a red.”

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