Ex-Fifa official: Referee made major blunder amid Mathias Jensen controversy at Brentford

Ex-Fifa official: Referee made major blunder amid Mathias Jensen controversy at Brentford

Keith Hackett

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

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Keith Hackett has insisted Bournemouth did not deserve a late penalty in their 0-0 draw with Brentford at the weekend (1 October).

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee suggested Thomas Bramall made life more difficult for himself by blowing for full time straight after the incident.

As shown on the BBC's Match of the Day programme, Bournemouth thought they should have had a spot-kick after the ball appeared to strike the arm of Brentford midfielder Mathias Jensen following a Ryan Christie corner.

A VAR check took place after the full-time whistle but decided Bramall had not made a clear and obvious error and the on-field decision was not overturned.

Interim Bournemouth manager Gary O'Neil told the BBC that he was "surprised" his side were not awarded a penalty.

"The first thing to do is, be mindful of what point in the game you are blowing the whistle for full-time," Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.

"Ideally, you want it to be in a situation where it is a dead ball. You need to be in a position where it's dead, that's the way to play it.

"In fairness to him, he's in a good position to judge the handball.

"I don't think that's a penalty kick."

Bournemouth

The draw means O'Neil has enjoyed an unbeaten spell in interim charge of the Cherries after Scott Parker's dismissal in August.

The club are now 13th in the Premier League table, three points clear of the relegation zone.

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