Pair at centre of penalty row given Euro nod

ANTONY Taylor and Stuart Attwell – the two officials at the centre of the controversy surrounding Nottingham Forest’s defeat at Everton on Sunday – have been handed roles at Euro 2024 in Germany this coming summer as part of a six-strong team of representatives from the Premier League.

Taylor and Michael Oliver will be on refereeing duties across the course of the tournament, which kicks off on June 14 with hosts Germany taking on Scotland in the opening game.

Oliver has been paired up with assistant referees Stuart Burt and Dan Cook. Taylor has been partnered with Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn.

Attwell, meanwhile, will take one of the two roles as a Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Nottinghamshire’s David Coote is the other member of the PGMOL representing England on the continental stage once the domestic campaign concludes.

Taylor took charge of Forest’s key survival clash at Goodison Park this past weekend, in which they suffered a 2-0 loss but were the subjects of three strong penalty appeals over the course of the afternoon – all of them against Ashley Young – which were in turn waved away by Taylor.

While all three were checked by VAR Attwell, two of them for challenges in the penalty area and the other for handball, none of the three on-field decisions were reversed.

Forest, who outlined their dismay at the full-time whistle via their social media channels, took exception to the appointment of Attwell as VAR due to the fact he is a Luton Town supporter and, in their view, might have made calls with the ongoing Premier League relegation battle in mind.

The footballing authorities are investigating Forest’s tweets.

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, now employed by Forest as a match and performance analyst, rang PGMOL chief Howard Webb last Friday ahead of the game, but stopped short of asking for Attwell to be taken off VAR duty.

Clattenburg merely alerted Webb to the fact Forest were expecting to get questions about Attwell being a Luton fan at their pre-match press conference with Nuno Espirito Santo. No questions were forthcoming and Webb didn’t remove him.