Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has fuelled the relentless criticism of officials by admitting that some “don’t know the game” while analysing the weekend’s decisions. The English top-flight threw up another selection of contentious incidents across nine games on Saturday and Sunday.
And in The Sun’s latest episode of The Whistleblower, Halsey – a Premier League referee from 1999 to 2013 – disagreed with two recent decisions made by the current crop.
The 63-year-old first took issue with Samuel Barrott awarding Liverpool a match-winning penalty against Southampton on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah scored the second of his brace from the spot to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 advantage after a fizzed ball struck Yukinari Sugawara’s arm in the box.
However, Halsey considered the call harsh, questioning the current referees’ football knowledge outside of the game’s laws.
“I thought it was a bit harsh [the Sugawara handball]. You can’t run with your arms by your side. You can’t jump with your arms by your side,” the 63-year-old explained.
“It’s come off his chest onto his arm. They’re in a natural position for that phrase of play. That’s what I’m saying about training education with our referees about incidents like that with handball.
“It’s about knowing the game. It’s all right knowing the laws of the game. It’s about knowing the game of football.”
Halsey then turned his attention towards Andy Madley for opting against sending Wilfred Ndidi off for a poor challenge on Cole Palmer in Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Leicester City a day earlier.
The Foxes midfielder appeared to scrape his studs down Palmer’s Achilles, but Madley left viewers stunned by only brandishing a yellow card.
Halsey was among those in disbelief, describing Ndidi’s reckless tackle as career-threatening.
He said: “I thought it was a very, very poor challenge when I saw it again. In real-time, Andy Madley hasn’t recognised the intensity of the challenge.
“I was surprised when the Premier League match centre came out and said there was no intensity. It’s all right knowing the laws of the game. It’s about knowing the game of football.
“But I’ll say it again, I said it earlier, when a player lunges at an opponent in that manner, from one or two feet, from the front, from the side, from the back, it has to be sanctioned a serious foul play.
“That was the worst challenge of the weekend. And I was very, very surprised that Paul Tierney, the VAR, did not recommend a review.
“That was a career-threatening challenge. It’s the training and education of VAR, when to come in and when not to come in.”
