Referee Tony Harrington ruled out Wolves’ late equaliser after consulting the pitchside monitor
The chairman of Wolves, Jeff Shi, made an astounding statement one day after the Midlands team was denied a late equalizer against West Ham due to a contentious and arbitrary offside call.
According to Jeff Shi, the chairman of the Wolverhampton Wanderers, a review of Premier League officiating is necessary to maintain the division’s integrity.
The remarkable public statement was made by Shi just one day after Wolves lost to another controversial VAR call. Gary O’Neil’s team, trailing 2-1 to West Ham at Molineux, believed they had saved a point in injury time in the ninth minute thanks to a header from Max Kilman.
Referee Tony Harrington was instructed to check the pitchside monitor after a protracted VAR check, as Tawanda Chirewa was deemed to be in an offside position, obstructing Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Their distant hopes of securing European football were effectively dashed by the defeat, which O’Neil called one of the worst decisions he had ever witnessed. Shi has also written an open letter questioning whether protocols should be altered in support of the club’s manager.
“When a goal is scored and nobody in the stadium, not even the match officials, coaches, fans, or both sets of players, questions the legitimacy of that goal, it’s time to question whether someone remotely disallowing that goal is really what football wants or needs,” the statement says.
“We sincerely hope that the Premier League and PGMOL understand how important it is to address these concerns in order to maintain the competition’s integrity and show why the Premier League is considered the best in the world.”
By publicly criticizing Harrington, O’Neil ran the risk of facing more punishment: “It’s possibly the worst decision I’ve ever seen.”
Should you have extremely limited knowledge and comprehension of the game, you may come to an incorrect conclusion.
Wolves chairman Jeff Shi released the statement on Sunday morning
“I would be extremely disappointed if you believed that to be offside as a top-level Premier League official. That can only be considered offside if he impairs Fabianski’s vision or prevents him from moving. The only people who believe that could be offside are the referee and VAR.”
The Wolves manager continued by acknowledging that there was a perception in his locker room that many players felt they were being treated disrespectfully because of the amount of decisions made. “That has come up again today. Earlier in the season, we had conversations about them wanting to demonstrate that they don’t think the officials respect them. It’s challenging for me to persuade them of the opposite after seeing the choices that have worked against us.
Host of Match of the Day Gary Lineker expressed similar confusion and said that the moment had come to introduce an appeals process for the use of the technology.
Gary O’Neil was furious at the decision which cost his side ( Image: Getty Images)
“I continue to say that the only way out of this is to go to an appeals system like they have in other sports because VAR is taking over,” he stated. Sincerely, I believe there is no other option. Perhaps one out of every half. You maintain that if your appeal is valid. Nobody would, in my opinion, file an appeal for that.
“You’re still going to people that are operating VAR and getting it wrong so often!” Ian Wright retorted to that notion.
