I read with interest today’s verdict of the Premier League Key Match Incidents panel on what happened at St James’ Park against Manchester United on March 4.
Here’s a quick recap.
Jacob Ramsey was sprinting flat-out into the Salfords’ penalty area, with the ball, which he pushed past the prone Senne Lammens. The keeper had his arms extended. Ramsey went sprawling.
Peter Bankes, the man in the middle, did not award a penalty. He gave a goal kick. Ramsey had already been booked, something the visiting players knew when they vigorously appealed for a second yellow, claiming Ramsey had dived. The referee was quick to oblige.
I’ve watched the incident at least a dozen times and there is no doubt in my mind the keeper executed what in rugby union would be deemed a perfectly timed tap tackle. His gloved hand clipped Ramsey on the boot/lower ankle.
Under the quaint VAR rules, the man at Stockley Park, Paul Tierney, could not intervene when Bankes (yes, that is spelt correctly) dismissed Ramsey.
Tierney could, however, have asked Bankes to look again at whether a penalty should have been awarded. He chose to stay silent, just as he (when the referee on the pitch)found no reason to award a penalty at Stamford Bridge last Saturday when Reece James wrestled Malick Thiaw to the ground as he tried to reach a right-wing corner.
The media will make little of either incident because justice was done in both matches: the one true United beat the Salfords and beat Chelsea.
So why am I so outraged by the verdict of the Key Match Incidents panel on what happened to Ramsey?
Because the whole system stinks.
This is what the Premier League’s own website says:
The Key Match Incident (KMI) panel, introduced during the 2022/23 Premier League season, is an independent body tasked with evaluating key decisions made in football matches.
The panel consists of five members: one from the Premier League, one from PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), the organisation responsible for refereeing, and three former players or coaches.
The primary purpose is to assess critical match incidents, such as penalties, red cards, offside decisions and other situations that fall under the referee’s jurisdiction.
These evaluations aim to provide independent and objective conclusions that reflect the fairness of each decision.
The panel declared today on a 3:2 vote that Ramsey’s “left foot appears to slip as he goes past the keeper” and that it “wasn’t an attempt to deceive the referee”.
Hallelujah! It’s official! We were all right to think Ramsey should not have been dismissed.
Of course, there were two members of the panel who supported Bankes (and by implication Tierney). I wonder if, almost inconceivably, the dissenters were the EPL rep and the PGMOL rep. They couldn’t possibly view protection of their organisations’ reputation as the highest priority, could they? Perish the thought!
The EPL being the EPL, those on the panel are anonymous, so nobody outside their secretive organisation will ever know their identity.
Not the players, not the managers, not the millions of supporters who pay a lot of money to watch matches in “the world’s greatest league” on any day of the week the broadcasters choose.
The incident at Stamford Bridge three days ago might be reviewed by the panel in its next round of deliberations. It might be judged another error. Don’t hold your breath on that one, mind. Two of the five-member panel have a vested interest in backing the match officials. They will reluctantly criticise their mates and their organisations only when there is no alternative. Just as the VAR will intervene only if the referee has dropped a massive clanger; and often not even then.
As I say, we won both games, gained six points, so why make a fuss? Four reasons, just for starters.
1] We were unfairly reduced to 10 men for more than half the match against the Salfords.
2] Ramsey was wrongly banned.
3] The energy-sapping effort against Man United clearly hindered our performance three days later in the FA Cup.
4] The panel are still refusing to say a penalty should have been awarded.
Look at the wording of their verdict. Ramsey’s “left foot appears to slip as he goes past the keeper”, they say.
Why would that be? Because he was clipped by Lammens’ glove. It’s not rocket science. A player sprinting with the ball at high speed would need to have the balance of a funambulist (look it up) to stay on his feet. Ramsey is pretty agile but even he couldn’t remain upright.
Those who believe the standard of officiating has declined might be interested to know there have now been 18 VAR errors logged by the panel this season, matching the total for the entire 2024/25 campaign.
All this after Howard Webb, the PGMOL supremo, asked before the season started for VAR to keep quiet except in the most ridiculous instances. Sounds to me another case of unintended consequences.
Do you recall the uproar when VAR procrastination dragged on and on, delaying the restart for five minutes or more? Webb and his cronies demanded quicker decisions. Better still, no decision at all.
The role of VAR has been emasculated, after years of referees relying on their Stockley Park chums to dig them out of a hole. We all saw at Villa Park what a cracking job the man in the middle does when he has no fall-back.
With Webb calling for fewer interventions, even while the Premier League is agreeing to extend the remit of VAR, we as supporters can look forward to yet more incompetence and confusion.