Chris Beesley points out there is a growing case of evidence to show Everton games are being refereed differently than their Premier League rivals as former refereeing chief Keith Hackett hits out at the decision not to send off Fulham’s Kenny Tete for pulling the hair of Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo
Fulham’s Kenny Tete should have been sent off for pulling the hair of Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo says former PGMOL chief and FIFA referee Keith Hackett but unlike Everton's Michael Keane who was shown a red card for violent conduct, he was not punished
Fulham’s Kenny Tete should have been sent off for pulling the hair of Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo says former PGMOL chief and FIFA referee Keith Hackett but unlike Everton's Michael Keane who was shown a red card for violent conduct, he was not punished
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With former refereeing chief Keith Hackett declaring that Fulham’s Kenny Tete should have been sent off for pulling the hair of Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo, when are the game’s authorities going to wake up to the increasingly obvious reality that Everton’s games are being refereed differently than their Premier League rivals?
With his side already 3-0 down to Manchester City in first-half stoppage time at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night, cameras caught Tete tugging on Semenyo’s locks in an off-the-ball incident at the back post as a cross came into the Fulham area.
If anything, it was a more blatant tug than the action Everton centre-back Michael Keane was shown a red card for as that was in an aerial duel with Tolu Arokodare and following the club’s unsuccessful appeal to have their player’s three-match suspension overturned, furious manager David Moyes, who insisted the action was not deliberate, claimed: “The technical part of it nearly makes it impossible to be done.”
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However, neither on-field referee at the Etihad Paul Tierney, or VAR official over at Stockley Park Neil Davies deemed the action of Tete to be violent conduct, unlike Keane.
ormer FIFA-listed referee Hackett, who took charge of Everton’s 1-0 win over Liverpool at Wembley in the 1984 Charity Shield before replacing Philip Don as the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, blasted Tete’s let-off and told Football Insider: “I find it difficult to understand why Tete is allowed to remain on the field of play when he has clearly pulled the hair of Semenyo.
“This should have been a red card and the award of a penalty kick for this offence. Where is the consistency in the application of law by PGMOL match officials?”
The decision was also in stark contrast to the warning handed out by current PGMOL chief Howard Webb when talking tough in conversation with Michael Owen on Sky Sports’ Premier League Match Officials Mic’d Up last month.
Webb said: “I’m told if you have your hair pulled, it’s quite an offensive thing to happen to you – I’ve not had mine pulled for a long time – but I think we’ve recognised that and it is in the guidance that we give to clubs before the season starts, it’s in the book that the Premier League produces. Grabbing somebody’s hair with force is deemed violent conduct and a player will be sent off.
“It (Keane’s sending off) was the appropriate outcome. It was unusual but if we see it again next week, it will be the same outcome next week as well.”
Except we didn’t. Seemingly because it wasn’t Everton.
The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel retrospectively ruled Moyes’ men should have been awarded a penalty in their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal at Hill Dickinson Stadium on December 20. With 57 minutes on the clock and the Gunners already ahead through a spot-kick of their own, which was converted by Viktor Gyokores, William Saliba floored Blues striker Thierno Barry in the area by kicking his foot.
At the time, the Premier League Match Centre’s explanation merely remarked how the contact “wasn’t deemed sufficient for a penalty,” but just 48 hours later, Fulham beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 thanks to a penalty converted by Raul Jimenez after an almost carbon copy challenge by Douglas Luiz on fellow Brazilian Kevin.
Moyes claimed watching that incident left him “half choking” and added: “It feels like certain clubs seem to get those decisions and other clubs don’t – we seem to be on the latter side of that.
“They (PGMOL) don’t make it easy. They will have conversations, but they don’t want to because they find it very difficult to explain the decisions.”
Hot on the heels of that decision, the Blues missed out again in their next game at Burnley. With just four minutes remaining of the match, the stalemate could have been broken when Burnley substitute Jaidon Anthony blocked a shot by Tyler Dibling with his arm.
The Premier League Match Centre vindicated the decision by stating: “The referee’s call of no penalty to Everton was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Anthony’s arm was in a justifiable position, with the ball coming from close proximity.”
Yet, in Everton’s first competitive game at Hill Dickinson Stadium against Brighton & Hove Albion the previous August, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall conceded a penalty with the Premier League Match Centre declaring: “The referee’s call of penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Dewsbury-Hall had his arm raised and made his body unjustifiably bigger.”
Yet replays have shown that Dewsbury-Hall was closer to the shot than Anthony.
And we've not even mentioned offsides... all the Blues are asking for is fair treatment and to be refereed in the same way as all the other teams in the Premier League, but time after time, it is not happening.
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