Villa Emery Bramall
Keith Hackett
Mon 2 June 2025 14:38, UK
Keith Hackett believes the PGMOL may be protecting themselves by not responding publicly to complaints from Aston Villa over referee Thomas Bramall.
The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that he believes the governing body for match officials should have issued a reaction to the controversy.
Aston Villa were beaten 2-0 by Man United on the final day of the Premier League season, a result that meant they missed out on Champions League qualification for next season.
However, the way in which they lost out in that match at Old Trafford on 25 May has already generated plenty of discussion, and placed some significant scrutiny on referee Bramall.
Aston Villa Premier League
Morgan Rogers’ disallowed goal proves costly
In first half stoppage time, Aston Villa had seen goalkeeper Emi Martinez sent off for pulling down Rasmus Hojlund with the Man United striker through on goal.
Even so, Unai Emery‘s side then thought they had opened the scoring with just 17 minutes of the match remaining.
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However, the goal was disallowed after Morgan Rogers was judged to have illegally dispossessed Altay Bayindir, despite replays showing the Man United goalkeeper did not have the ball under control.
The speed at which Bramall blew to penalise the supposed meant VAR could not intervene to overturn the decision, and the Red Devils would go on to win 2-0 instead.
With this game having being so crucial to Champions League qualification, questions have been asked of why a relatively inexperienced referee such as Bramall was appointed to Man United vs Aston Villa.
Indeed, the Midlands club confirmed on the day of the game that they had written to PGMOL to ask for clarification over the decision to assign Bramall to the game.
So far though there has been no public indication of any response from the referee’s body, something Hackett has criticised.
Aston Villa can confirm the club has written to the PGMOL to raise concerns over the selection process of match officials following today’s game with Manchester United at Old Trafford.
With such high stakes surrounding today’s fixture, the club believe a more experienced referee… pic.twitter.com/Ma09U4glOQ
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 25, 2025
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Aston Villa frustration grows with PGMOL silence
After being asked by Football Insider what he made of the fact PGMOL appears not to have responded to Aston Villa over this situation as yet, Hackett said:
“I think initially they should have clarified what took place and admitted that their official had made an error.
“I suspect that one of the reasons they haven’t done that is that when you have a controversial incident, and a club’s suggesting that they may be going down the legal route, that will close off any potential statement.
“Because they’ll hold on to their defence mechanism, in relation to if it ever got to a situation of court of law, and it may be that, that’s restricted to some degree what they can say. But I just believe in transparency.
“If they’re prepared to come out and do Mic’d Up [in which PGMOL chief Howard Webb discusses a handful of recent controversial incidents] and explain things that are all very clearly scripted, because they touch some of the incidents that we discuss that we know are wrong.
Howard Webb
PGMOL boss Howard Webb (Credit Imago)
“With this one, they could quite easily say ‘look Thomas Bramall is a human being, and in the game he got caught out of position’.
“Which he did, he was too far away from the incident. That in a sense is a degree of naivety in his work rate on the field of play, because proximity to play, viewing angles, all those things play a part.
“So he guessed in my opinion, and he guessed wrong. The very first thing that we ask assistant referees is to delay the flag, and in these situations first of all, he should have been in a position to allow play to continue.
“He knows how VAR operates, we’ve seen our top referees delay the decision on penalty kicks and certain aspects, and I think on this one he came in too quick and it was a massive error.
“PGMOL’s communication is through the media weeks afterwards, and I think the fans deserve more.”
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