Premier League urged to probe Moss request for TV assistance
Former referee Hackett urges ruling body to act Fourth official consulted in dramatic Anfield finale
The Premier League was last night under pressure to commission an independent investigation into Jon Moss’s handling of the dramatic climax to Liverpool’s Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur after his bosses failed to explain his potentially rule-breaking request for “TV” assistance.
Moss avoided any action over an exchange with assistant Ed Smart and fourth official Martin Atkinson, which was caught on microphone during Sunday’s explosive 2-2 draw at Anfield and in which he said: “Martin, have you got anything from TV?”
Moss had been discussing with Smart the first of two penalties awarded to Spurs and whether Dejan Lovren had played Harry Kane onside by touching the ball.
Match officials are forbidden from using television footage to check decisions other than when trials of video assistant referees are taking place. Sunday’s incident was reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane’s sending-off in the 2006 World Cup final, which Fifa has always denied involved replays being used to alert the referee to his butt on Marco Materazzi.
There was an identical response yesterday from Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, which described Moss’s comments as “misguided”, but failed to explain them.
That led Keith Hackett, its former general manager, to call for an independent investigation to get to the truth. Revealing he would have suspended Moss were the referee to have been shown to have sought television assistance during his own time in charge, Hackett told The Daily Telegraph: “A more detailed investigation needs to take place, independent of the PGMOL, to determine why Jon Moss referenced specifically his fourth official and television. They can’t just dismiss it as a slip of the tongue.”
PGMOL denied Atkinson had viewed television footage or relayed any information about the incident to the on-field officials despite accusations on social media he had watched a pitchside monitor near Geoff Shreeves, who was covering the match for Sky Sports.
Shreeves told The Telegraph yesterday it would have been “impos- I don’t know.
If he has not touched the ball it is offside, so you’re chalking off the penalty. It has to be offside if Lovren has not touched the ball.
sible” for Atkinson to have sight of the monitor. PGMOL also said the match was not part of the “nonlive” VAR trials that had been conducted in the Premier League for the past two seasons, in which the video assistant is not meant to communicate with the referee.
Moss’s comments are likely to further infuriate Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, who was livid with both penalty awards and claimed the referee admitted making “a mistake” for the first of them.
Moss’s eventual decision to award Sunday’s first penalty divided the refereeing community, He did touch the ball.
He didn’t touch the ball!
I cannot be sure if Lovren touched the ball or not. That is the question I am asking.
with Hackett and Mark Clattenburg declaring Kane should have been flagged offside in the build-up and Graham Poll stating the opposite.
PGMOL said yesterday Moss had correctly interpreted the laws, which state a player is not offside if “receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball”. In response to suggestions Lovren’s touch on the ball was not deliberate because he mishit his clearance, PGMOL said: “The interpretation of ‘deliberately’ kicking a ball considers whether a player has intentionally tried to kick a ball – it does not consider whether the ball (Eriksen and Can are asked to move away)
You know what I’m asking. I need to clarify, has Lovren touched the ball? If he has, it’s a deliberate action, and therefore it’s a penalty. If he has not, it’s offside.
I’ve no idea whether or not Lovren touched the ball, to be honest with you. Martin, have you got anything from TV? I’m giving a penalty.
ends up where a player may have wanted to kick it.”
But Hackett produced a document containing guidance from football’s rulemaking body, the International Football Association Board, which states a player is offside if he “makes an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball”.
He said: “For me, the actions of Kane standing in an offside position interfered with the actions of Lovren.”
Hackett called on IFAB to urgently clarify the correct interpretation of the laws.