Refs' chief to miss potentially tricky meeting with Nottingham Forest and angry Premier League clubs

Former Referee Howard Webb looks on
-Credit: (Image: Photo by Richard Martin-Roberts - AMA/Getty Images)


Nottingham Forest have been denied the opportunity to take Howard Webb to task over the standard of Premier League refereeing after it was learned that the head of elite match officials would miss a key meeting in London on Thursday.

Webb had been expected to provide a refereeing update at the first Premier League shareholders’ meeting of the new season, but it has since been confirmed he will not appear.

A number of top-flight clubs - including Forest and near rivals Leicester City - are unhappy at what they claim are errors by officials in the early weeks of the season, and had intended to grill Webb over refereeing standards at the meeting.

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.

The highest-profile incidents came in Sunday's 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Arsenal at the Etihad. City claimed referee Michael Oliver made a mistake in the lead-up to Arsenal's initial equaliser, while the Gunners were enraged by the red card handed to Leandro Trossard.

However, it now appears that Webb, the chief refereeing officer for PGMOL (the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd) will not be at the meeting. Instead, Tony Scholes, the Premier League’s chief football officer, is expected to brief clubs. Webb does not attend every meeting.

According to the Times, former Stoke City chief executive Scholes is also a PGMOL board member. It adds: "Scholes can expect questions about refereeing, as well as the timetable for the introduction of the semi-automated offside system, which is due this autumn."

Webb has yet to address the latest Forest incident directly. However, the PGMOL maintains that most of the 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.

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