Ex-Fifa official: Referee ‘choked big decision’ as controversial Silva footage emerges from Man City
Keith Hackett has claimed Stuart Attwell “choked” the decision to award Man City a penalty in their 2-1 win over Arsenal on Saturday (1 January).
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Premier League and Fifa referee suggested there is an “over-reliance” on VAR after Attwell only penalised Granit Xhaka’s foul on Bernardo Silva after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor.
Silva had entered the Arsenal box before being tripped by Xhaka who then pulled on his shirt as he fell to the ground.
Despite their appeals, City were denied a penalty before a review by VAR operator Jarred Gillett.
“Where I think the inconsistency comes and acceptance in the game comes is we’ve seen so many pulling and holding offences go unpunished,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“When it is punished and VAR comes in we all say ‘Just a minute, he was going down’.
“Clearly the shirt is being pulled. We’ve picked that up and the point that he is going down. It’s a foul, it’s a holding offence, it’s a penalty kick.
“I think he was fouled anyway before then therefore I didn’t have any complaints.
“We’ve got this other aspect and that is the risk that referees become lazy. With VAR what we’re getting is almost referees choking the big decisions in the hope that the anchor will come in.
“Referees have got to make these big calls. They’ve got to move into positions to see and punish.
“There is the epidemic of lazy officiating and an over-reliance on VAR.”
In other news, Kieran Maguire has insisted fans will be fuming with a Pep Guardiola proposal at Man City.