BT Sport panel disagree over Aston Villa penalty decision in 2-0 Everton defeat
The BT Sport panel were in disagreement over the Aston Villa penalty that was awarded as Everton crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park.
The Toffees fell into the relegation zone again as an Ollie Watkins penalty and Emi Buendia strike gave the visitors all three points, but there was controversy surrounding the award of the spot kick.
While watching the game on BT Sport Score (25 February, 16:19), Fara Williams initially believed it wasn’t a penalty which sparked a furious exchange with her fellow panelists live on air.
“Referee pointed straight to the spot, it’s McGinn that goes down,” Williams said.
“Ooh, I think if VAR has a look at this, I think Gueye gets a touch on the ball and if VAR have a look it’s not a penalty if they look at it.”
Former referee Peter Walton was asked for his opinion on the incident and immediately disagreed.
“I’ve had a look at it and from one angle it looks as if he gets the ball, but from another angle he doesn’t get the ball,” he said.
“I don’t think it’ll be overturned, I think it’s a penalty kick. There is an optical illusion here, I think it’s a penalty. He doesn’t get the ball.
Williams was baffled though, and furiously asked;
“What’s he touched then? Did the ball not change direction?”
“I don’t think he does [touch the ball], he doesn’t,” Walton replied. “He doesn’t touch the ball. We’re forensically analysing this and that’s not what VAR is for by the way.
“Again, what I’m saying is that from one angle it looks as if he’s touched it and from another it doesn’t. I don’t think it’ll be overturned.”
Williams continued to contest the decision however, convinced it shouldn’t be a penalty.
“Why hasn’t the referee been asked to go and look at the monitor then? Because I definitely think the ball has changed direction.”
Walton then insisted that the referee was simply following protocol, and he felt he had made the correct decision.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in a relegation battle or the middle of the table. At the end of the day, you follow the protocol. Protocol is laid down by IFAB. You don’t want inconsistencies of one game sending him over, and the next game not.
Martin Keown wasn’t happy about that though, and claimed it was “arrogance” on behalf of the referees that stopped them doing the right thing.
“I feel it stinks of arrogance, honestly, that comment,” he said.
“If you’re in the stadium, the referee should be allowed to be sent over and take a look at that.”
Painful
It’s so painful to see common sense not applied in these situations, and this silly term of “clear and obvious” being banded about so much.
Gueye’s tackle was lazy, but there’s clearly a change of direction on the ball and the debate that it sparked shows it wasn’t an obvious decision.
There’s nothing wrong with allowing the referee to go and look at the screen to make his final judgement with a bit of help, because then fans and pundits would feel far more comfortable with the decision being made.
Instead he is forced to stick with his initial decision because someone else doesn’t believe he has obviously got it wrong, even if he has potentially got it wrong.
It’s now cost us points in this relegation battle, and the lack of goals in the team is incredibly worrying considering we can’t seem to keep clean sheets for the life of us against teams with attacking options.