By Victor Kanayo
Day after they took charge of a Premier League match between Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, three officials have been slammed with ban.
They were effectively suspended from the coming weekend games after failing to award a penalty to Wolves during their encounter with United on Monday August 14, 2023.
The heated tie which ended 1-0 in favour of the Red Devils showed that Wolves were denied a late penalty when United keeper Andre Onana crashed into Sasa Kalajdzic and failed to make contact with the ball.
Thereafter, Wolves boss Gary O’Neil revealed that elite referees manager Jon Moss told him he “could not believe” the error.
Reports also disclosed that referees’ chief Howard Webb, who is head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), contacted Wolves officials after the match to apologise.
The move is a direct result of the collective failure to award the injury-time penalty and is part of Webb’s demand for enhanced accountability for mistakes.
Referee Simon Hooper, video assistant referee (VAR) Michael Salisbury and assistant VAR Richard West are regarded as “not selected” rather than “dropped” as the weekend appointments had not been made prior to Monday’s game.
In April, Salisbury was stood down for a game after he did not intervene to award Brighton a penalty in a defeat at Tottenham while also acting as the VAR.
