David Ornstein has criticised the overly ‘pally’ manner in which refereeing teams communicate, following recent controversies in the Tottenham-Liverpool and Arsenal-Manchester City matches.
Howard Webb appeared on Sky Sports News on Tuesday night to discuss the wrongly disallowed goal for Luis Diaz and the potential red card for Mateo Kovacic, but still stuck up for the officials involved despite admitting that the latter was ‘extremely fortunate’ not to be sent off.
The Athletic journalist was speaking on Sky’s Back Pages Tonight when he said that there are simply ‘too many’ apologies for refereeing errors in the Premier League, adding that the PGMOL chief did ‘a lot of standing up’ for those involved in the two aforementioned incidents.
With the VAR from the Colombian’s chalked-off goal made public last week, Ornstein condemned the overly informal nature of the discussions between the officials, saying: “You do notice from the clips that are broadcast [that] it’s very friendly and pally in terms of everybody using nicknames for each other.
“It doesn’t feel the most strict, professional environment. Whether that’ll make a difference to the decision making or not, I’m not sure, but certainly there was a huge lapse in concentration in that incident.”
The journalist raises a very fair point, especially in light of what happened to the Liverpool forward in north London, and frankly nails it with his assessment.
Referees are there to work and to carry out a massively important job, not to sit around and chat like punters in a pub, so the dialogue between them should be more formal and, to use Ornstein’s words, ‘professional’.
This is part of the reason why VAR discussions need to be made publicly transmissible during games, so that trust can be built in what for now is a process which reeks of opacity and a sense of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’.
You can view Ornstein’s comments below, via @SkySportsNews on Twitter/X:
🗣 "It's very 'pally', everybody using nicknames for each other. It doesn't feel the most strict, professional environment."
The Athletic's David Ornstein says there are 'too many' apologies for VAR decisions in the Premier League ⚽ pic.twitter.com/3e2au1xnM4
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 10, 2023