Arsene Wenger has blurted out another attack on Premier League refereeing, calling Mike Dean’s penalty decision against West Brom “a farce” and saying match officials should be demoted to the Championship after making big mistakes.
“This one is a bit of a farce, honestly, because that is not serious,” Wenger said about Dean’s decision.
“You do not give in the last minute of a game a penalty like that. When you see how he [Dean] shows his arm, it has nothing to do with what happened. So he sees what he wants to see.”
Wenger insisted such decisions must become more consistent, and pointed to an incident in Manchester United’s 0-0 draw against Southampton on Saturday when referee Craig Pawson waved away United’s claims when the ball struck Maya Yoshida’s arm.
“It was much more a penalty than the [Chambers handball],” Wenger said. “They don’t look to have the same rule book. They will not sort that problem out, I’ve said that many times, as long as they do not give clear indications on what is a penalty and not a penalty.”
Wenger said those meetings are pointless when the standards seem to change during the season.
“They should spare that visit. They could stay at home, because they never respect what they say,” Wenger said in comments made before he was charged by the FA. “That changes always during the season, because they must watch the television and see, ‘Oh he’s given a penalty. Maybe next time I do it as well.’ They need a clear guidance.”
“I think the system of promoting young referees does not work, and they do not give enough chances maybe to young referees to go up,” he said. “They should have a bigger [pool] and the guys who have a bad patch [should] go down to the second division.”
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