Yahoo News Stuart Attwell caught up in new controversy days on from Nottingham Forest VAR drama
Days after his central role in Nottingham Forest's VAR row, Stuart Attwell was caught up in another refereeing fiasco when he took charge of Wolves' match with Bournemouth.
The official was under the spotlight having denied Forest's three penalty claims during their 2-0 loss to Everton on Sunday. The club then launched an assault, furious over his VAR appointment given the ongoing relegation battle with Luton Town, the club he supports.
And the controversy continued at Molineux on Wednesday evening. Instead of being stationed at Stockley Park, this time he was the main man and over the course of the 90 minutes made two controversial decisions.
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The first was to strike off a Wolves equaliser for an off-the-ball foul involving Matheus Cunha and Justin Kluivert. The former's flailing arm towards the Bournemouth player had not been spotted in real time, though upon referral to the pitchside monitor by his VAR Darren England, Attwell overruled the goal.
Manager Gary O'Neil did not want to comment on it after full-time, having spoken at length about VAR decisions this season. Instead he had sympathy for the referee and held no issue with his appointment to the match.
"No, no qualms at all, I hope he is OK. A tough few days for him. I hope he is doing OK,” O’Neil said via PA. "I don’t have any thoughts on the decision, I think it is really important I focus fully on my team and Wolves.
"I have spent a lot of time this season answering questions around VAR and decisions and I don’t have any thoughts, everyone else will see the incident and make their own decisions. My focus is fully on us.
"I have answered your questions around it so many times after so many games and all that goes out after the game is either me moaning or not moaning about decisions.
"It doesn’t help anybody, let’s let those guys figure out what is the correct decision and let me figure out how to get this team some more points between now and the end of the season."
Shortly afterwards Attwell then came to the decision that Cherries defender Milos Kerkez had recklessly challenged Matt Doherty and therefore issued the red card.
Via his X profile after the match, Kerkez himself responded: "Three points and an unbelievable red card, football is getting really soft." His boss Andoni Iraola confirmed that the club will appeal in the coming days, though was in agreement with the disallowed goal.
