The Football Association is set to impose tough penalties on clubs who criticize referees after Arsenal released a statement earlier this month supporting Mikel Arteta’s tirade against referees.
In a lengthy tirade following his side’s 1–0 defeat to Newcastle United, the Spaniard described the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s winning goal as a “disgrace” and “embarrassing”.
On Thursday evening, the FA confirmed it had charged Arteta with breaching rule E3.1. His comments “constituted misconduct by insulting the match officials and/or damaging the match and/or bringing the match into disrepute.”
Arteta has until Tuesday, November 21 to respond to the allegation and Arsenal are likely to dispute it as they have released a statement in support of their manager’s comments calling on PGMOL to “improve the standard of functioning”. This urgently needs to be improved in the Premier League.
Arsenal’s statement was unconventional to say the least and according to The Telegraph, the FA are “extremely concerned” by their decision to publicly support Arteta in this way.
The FA plans to meet representatives from the league and managers’ associations to warn that regulatory action will be taken against clubs if they support managers who criticize referees.
They are concerned about the ever-increasing lack of respect for referees – which is contributing to a shortage of people wanting to become referees – and will now “draw the line in the sand”, according to Arsenal’s statement.
It is unclear whether Arsenal will face regulatory action as a result of their statement, but any subsequent statement of this nature – from the Gunners or otherwise – will provoke a strong response.
Arsenal are in a particularly difficult position as PGMOL does not believe there was an error in awarding Gordon’s goal.
It was actually the focus of the Match Officials’ latest Mic’d Up broadcast, where the VAR audio recording of the match was shared, with the VAR team unable to find any clear angles that would show if the ball was went out and Gordon was offside.
Both VAR Andy Madley and VAR assistant Stuart Burt also felt that Joelinton’s contact with Gabriel Magalhaes was not enough to commit a foul, overturning the decision on the pitch.
The Premier League’s independent Major Match Incident Panel also reviewed the decision and voted 4–1 that the referees were right not to disallow the goal.
Arsenal and Arteta were also unhappy that Bruno Guimaraes was not sent off, a decision that PGMOL boss Howard Webb admitted they were wrong, despite the Key Match Incidents Panel unanimously agreeing that Kai Havertz had earlier in the match should have been sent off the field.
Source: Metro
Source: Metro
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