US former NFL football player JJ Watt.placeholder image
US former NFL football player JJ Watt. | Getty Images
The minority investor in the club spoke passionately to defend Burnley on ESPN talk show.
Minor shareholder at Burnley JJ Watt has launched a passionate defence of the club - and says they won’t take decisions going against them ‘lying down’ this campaign.
After Burnley had a number of controversial referee decisions go against them, JJ Watt appeared on ESPN’s American football talk show, The Pat McAfee Show, where he openly expressed his discontent towards the state of refereeing in English football at the moment.
The Clarets fought back from behind twice to level with Manchester United in their latest game but were cruelly denied a point after the referee pointed to the penalty spot, deeming Jaidon Anthony’s contact on Amad Diallo to be sufficient enough to award a spot kick in the final stages of the game.
Posting on X after that decision was made, the former NFL player said: “It was outside the box....”
And when asked about his tweet after the game by talk show host Pat McAfee, Watt said: “That was with Burnley and yes, that was absolute, I’ve got to watch myself a little bit here… questionable at best, and I’m yet to hear an acceptable reasoning.”
He was then asked if there was someone he could get in contact with about these decisions going against his side, and he passionately responded: “Yeah. We don’t take this bull---- anymore. We’re not like a little team at the bottom of the table that’s just going to take this lying down.
“We are going to speak up about it. I’m going to tweet about it, they’re going to hear about it. We’re going to get a letter back saying, ‘yes, we screwed up, we’re sorry’, nothing’s going to change, but we’re not taking this s--- lying down. It p----- me off.”
After the match, Burnley boss Scott Parker was not hiding his emotions and spoke about how “we’re probably months or a year away from not celebrating goals”, after forward Lyle Foster had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside call earlier in the game. "It's the way the game has gone - quadruple-checking everything every minute," Parker told BBC Match of The Day. “On the field, the referee didn't give the foul, then we've re-reffed it. It's not the ref, it's a fella 200-odd miles away in a box.
"We're probably months or a year away from not celebrating goals [at all]. "I stand on the touchline, you score a goal and I feel like there's a million things that go through your mind - a checklist. Was it offside? Did he step on his toe two minutes before?"
Premier League legend Alan Shearer said he “can understand” Parker’s frustrations at the way Foster’s goal was disallowed.
"I can understand him [Parker] being upset with the offside because it was one of those,” he said on the Rest is Football podcast. “I know we’ve come to the point with the semi-automated offsides where we might trust it, but on the images it was a case of: ‘hang on, how’s he offside?’. They’re level. You’re almost measuring it from armpit hair! So I completely get his frustration at that, because it could have gone one way or the other.”
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