Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has suggested that poor refereeing decisions could have cost Leeds United a place in the Premier League next season, in a Real EFL exclusive.
Halsey had a stellar career as an official, acting as part of the matchday team in the 2002 FA Cup final and refereeing in international fixtures and the UEFA Cup. In 2008, he officiated the League Cup Final between Spurs and Chelsea and is a respected authority on match officials
He’s suggested that Leeds United may have been robbed of a place in the Premier League because of poor officiating. Daniel Farke complained that his side had received six letters of apology for decisions from the PGMOL, the refereeing body, over the course of the last season. His claims came after he said he expected two more following a 0-0 draw with Sunderland, which handed rivals Ipswich an advantage in the race for a place in the top division.
In the end, Leeds missed out on automatic promotion by six points, but with six letters possibly apologising for a red card or a penalty, Halsey suggested it could have been a factor in their failure to achieve promotion.
“You could argue that most probably those six letters cost Leeds many points, that could have seen them have automatic promotion,” said Halsey, speaking exclusively to The Real EFL’s Charlie Beeston.
“It brings an argument. Do we want do we want VAR in the EFL? I would say no, not under its present implementation in the Premier League as it’s so inconsistent.”
VAR in the Championship has been a subject of much discussion, but Halsey believes that the problem lies not with technology but with the officials making the decisions.
“Howard Webb is a good friend of mine, but as the boss of the PGMOL, I would be very unhappy with having six complaints coming from Leeds United about my referees. If Howard is sending those six letters of apology for wrong decisions, then there’s a massive problem with the standard of officiating at that level, isn’t it?
“We have got a problem. I’ve seen some good referees in the Championship. There are some good referees, some good up-and-coming referees all over. But it’s the training, education, leadership, and direction to get these referees up to speed. I think Hal’s got to look at his backroom team.”
Halsey has even suggested the PGMOL might benefit from being run more like a football club.
“When a new manager comes into a football club, He changes the whole backroom. He brings in his own people; Howard has not done that yet. I think that’s what needs to happen. I think the people underneath him who are working are not good enough to bring the referees up to how we used to be a few years ago.”
It is worth noting that Farke’s claims did get bigger as the season went on. In April, he claimed they’d received six letters, but the PGMOL printer might have run out of ink because by May, a further six had allegedly been sent, with Farke saying he’d now had 12 letters. After his side’s 0-0 Play-Off Semi-Final draw with Norwich, he made a claim that aligns with Halsey.
“I have 12 apologising letters at home already during the season with offside goals and penalties not given,” he said. “If we would have used VAR during this season we wouldn’t be in the play-offs – we would have been promoted automatically.”
Writer’s View
Halsey’s view might be controversial, not least in Suffolk, but he has a point. If Farke did get six letters, or indeed 12, it’s likely they have cost some serious points. Decisions in the Sunderland game, for instance, certainly went against Leeds.
However, VAR is not the answer. It’s been a disaster in the Premier League, and as we’ve seen at the Euros, it’s only the English referees that seem to struggle with it. VAR operated correctly allows the game to flow nicely, but otherwise it is a clunky adversary of the beautiful game.
That said, with VAR in the Championship, it might be Leeds and not Ipswich kicking off against Liverpool on August 12th.
Were Leeds robbed of a Premier League place by inept officials? Let us know your thoughts on social media.
Mark Halsey was speaking to The Real EFL on behalf of Online Poker
