The Referee Denied Man City A Good Goalscoring Opportunity Vs Tottenham – Howard Webb

PGMOL chief, Howard Webb has come out to admit that Manchester City were incorrectly denied a clear goalscoring opportunity at the end of their 3-3 draw with Tottenham. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, there was clearly a reckless foul challenge by Emerson Royal on Haaland and the ref hesitated a moment to see if an advantage is possible, so the blame has to go to him.

Webb added that he understands the disappointment that Manchester City players felt after the game because they were denied a good goal.

His words, “Yeah, it is an officiating mistake, and you’re right, the VAR has no part to play in this. Of course, we’re always looking, as officials, to have that positive influence on the game, by trying to identify occasions when we can allow the game to play through an advantage. And Simon Hooper, the referee on this occasion, is normally good at identifying those things. On this particular occasion, he sees a pretty strong, reckless foul challenge by Emerson Royal on Haaland. It’s in midfield, and the ball comes backwards. He does the hard work, he just hesitates a moment to see if an advantage is possible. But he recognises in his mind, thinking it through, that it was a strong challenge, it was reckless, he is going to have to caution.

At ground level, it’s not quite so easy to see the way that things are playing out as it is from an elevated view. And he decides to penalise just at the moment as the ball’s about to go, he blows the whistle, and then realises that a wonderful advantage was available. And for sure, he was devastated. He’d refereed the game really well for 93 minutes, but he knows this is going to be the only talking point. Really close to the end of the game, I understand the disappointment that Manchester City felt on this one, because it would have been a wonderful advantage. He just formed the opinion to blow just at the wrong time. It looked like he was ready to play advantage.”