Everton: Alan Brazil furious with ‘clowns’ after Dominic Calvert-Lewin incident v Crystal Palace – ‘absolute disgrace’
Alan Brazil and Ray Parlour have been left in a rage at an “absolute disgrace” of a decision involving Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the clash between Everton and Crystal Palace.
The Toffees were held to a 0-0 draw by Roy Hodgson’s side in the FA Cup third round on Thursday (4 January) but the game was dominated by the controversial decision to send off Calvert-Lewin for a challenge on Nathaniel Clyne in the second half.
Calvert-Lewin was given his marching orders after a lengthy VAR check, but talkSPORT host Brazil was left furious live on air following the incident, labelling both the referee and VAR officials “clowns”.
Speaking on talkSPORT (5 January, 6:06) he said: “When they took two, three minutes to review it, what are they looking at? Are they looking at a different telly or something? Absolute disgrace. It just shows you where our game has gone now.
“Clowns inside that truck and the referee, the referee could overturn that. It’s a disgrace. That’s the worst I’ve seen. I hate it anyway, I’ve hated it from day one.”
Parlour agreed saying: “That was a great tackle in my era and probably your era it wasn’t even thought of as a foul. Anybody involved in football could see that it wasn’t a red card. His foot was a little bit high but there was no contact whatsoever, so I don’t know how they got to that decision to send him off.
“That was an awful decision.”
Clowns
Every week it seems like pundits in English football have a new ridiculous decision to be outraged by and that shows just how poor the standard of officiating has become in the English game currently.
While Calvert-Lewin did enter the challenge heavily and there is an argument that his feet were high, he made absolutely no contact with Clyne and he should never have been shown a red card, especially after that long was taken over the VAR review.
That single poor decision could have cost the Toffees a place in the FA Cup fourth round and could see Dyche’s star man ruled out for a number of weeks as Everton fight a potential relegation battle.
Too often the referees and VAR officials are getting these crucial calls wrong week after week and something needs to change sooner rather than later. Labelling them as clowns is a bit harsh, but it’s hard to disagree with Brazil at the moment.
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