Howard Webb has serious questions to answer over new controversy, Premier League officiating has become a joke
Howard Webb simply has nowhere to hide after another damning mistake from one of his Premier League officials on Wednesday night.
It should be said that the likes of Anthony Taylor, Michael Oliver and Jarred Gillett are referees at the top of their game, but the inconsistency in refereeing decisions is tarnishing the beautiful game.
Willie Collum also faces similar criticism in the Scottish Premiership, but Premier League fans are far more focused on the quality of their own officials and the clear lack of consistency across the board.
Former PGMOL chief, Keith Hackett, has slammed Webb previously during the season, with his referees continuing to get decisions blatantly wrong but not having the guts to admit that.
Hair-pulling controversies continue in the Premier League
For example, he refused to admit that Diogo Dalot should have been sent off against Man City after a studs-up challenge on Jeremy Doku, suggesting that it did not have “excessive force”.
One key incident that was correctly handled, though, was the red card for Michael Keane, who was given his marching orders for a blatant hair pull on Wolves‘ Tolo Arokodare last month.
Everton fans wanted Keane’s suspension lifted, but instead, he missed games against Sunderland, Aston Villa and Leeds United, with the head of the PGMOL not budging on the “grey area” around hair-pulling.
However, all of that has instantly gone out of the window as outrage continues on social media after Kenny Tete was allowed to get away with exactly the same on Antoine Semenyo.
Howard Webb must answer to a growing number of furious supporters
To make the situation worse, VAR checked the contentious incident, which took place inside the Cottagers’ penalty area on Wednesday, 11 February, only for calls of a red card to be waved away.
It is decisions like this that lead to supporters really questioning the level of officiating in the Premier League. And Webb does not appear to be doing anything to fix the ongoing issues, at least from the outside.
Calls for VAR to be scrapped are louder than ever right now, and for good reason, clearly.
Very few officials actually have the trust of supporters across the Premier League, and it is difficult to see where the current PGMOL boss can begin to fix this.
His chats with Michael Owen do little to build any confidence in the current establishment.