Ex-Fifa official ‘disappointed’ as Liverpool referee news confirmed
Liverpool and the rest of the Premier League have been dealt a “disappointing” blow after the PGMOL appointed Danielle Every as their new chief operating officer, according to Keith Hackett.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee and former head of the PGMOL suggested new referee’s chief Howard Webb should also be in charge of administration.
The Premier League confirmed last week (8 December) that Every had taken over her new role after a spell at British Cycling.
Webb has spent the previous five years in a similar role at Professional Referee Organisation in north America.
“The Premier League is one-third of the board of the PGMOL and were unhappy with procedures and referee delivery and as a result, they carried out a root and branch review of the organisation,” Hackett told Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.
“The outcome of that was the early retirement, at the end of last season, of Mike Riley and the appointment of his successor, Howard Webb.
“They also decided that there should be someone responsible for administration and someone responsible for refereeing. At the moment, you’ve got Mike Riley doing both jobs in the role of managing director.
“What you’ve now got is a bit of a confusing situation. The risk is, is it the chief operating officer, Danielle Every, from British Cycling – who I have no doubt is competent at her job but knows nothing about football and refereeing but that doesn’t matter because she’s an administrator – who holds the purse strings that restrict what Howard Webb can do?
“For example, if Howard Webb comes in and decides, there are up to 10 people in management positions he needs to offload, is the new chief operating officer going to release the money to allow him to make the appropriate payments to those people who he is going to move on?
“I was general manager of the PGMOL, I wasn’t a board director but attend meetings to report.
“Given Riley’s got the MD position, I would’ve thought it appropriate that Howard Webb would be a director of the PGMOL and not the chief refereeing officer, but the director of refereeing.
“I’m disappointed that they’ve not given him a title that is appropriate for the role he’s going to do and the amount of power he needs to do the job. He’s got no vote on the board.”
In other news, the Liverpool takeover price has soared after confirmed news from overseas.