Nottingham Forest were hoping to address officiating standards in a Premier League shareholders’ meeting with Howard Webb.
The Chief Refereeing Officer for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) was expected to provide a refereeing update at a meeting in London on Thursday, with a number of Premier League clubs unhappy about the standard of refereeing so far this season.
So, how are Nottingham Forest feeling as Howard Webb delegates the meeting to Tony Scholes, the Premier League’s Chief Football Officer? Let’s take a look…
How Nottingham Forest feel
A story from The Times states that those at the City Ground are angry about the standard of officiating in the Premier League this season.
Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City are named as the three sides who feel they have been on the receiving end of incorrect or inconsistent refereeing decisions in the 2024/25 campaign so far.
The Times state that Nottingham Forest are specifically angry at the red cards shown to Morgan Gibbs-White and Nuno Espirito Santo in Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Brighton.
In case you missed it, the Nottingham Forest boss was dismissed for his reaction to seeing Gibbs-White receive a second yellow card for a challenge on Joao Pedro, and he had every right to be as Rob Jones signalled the England international won the ball just seconds before.
Harshly, Gibbs-White is staring an extended ban in the face, for the manner in which he treated Anthony Taylor after his dismissal.
Interestingly, the PGMOL argues that many of the decisions being disputed by Premier League clubs were actually correct – although they would say that.
It comes after Nottingham Forest made several public complaints about the standard of officiating last season, as Evangelos Marinakis lost his cool with those in the PGMOL.
Reds have every right to be annoyed
How are we still discussing officiating more than the actual football yet again?
It is becoming a tiresome conversation, and if it is taking this long for the likes of Jones to learn how to officiate a Premier League game, perhaps some fresh blood should be trialled instead.
There just seems to be no urgency whatsoever to improve the conditions.
For example, the semi-automated offside system we were promised in the Premier League this season will not be arriving until Autumn, according to The Times, meaning the first chunk of games this term have effectively been allowed to go ahead with lesser technology, creating an uneven playing field.
Something needs to change, and fast.
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