Image Credit: Sky Sports
By Lee Clow
03 March 2021 | Premier League
BBC pundits say referee, Lee Mason, made a huge mistake during the controversial match between West Bromwich Albion vs Brighton & Hove Albion.
Speaking on BBC 5 Live’s ‘Monday Night Club’, former Manchester City player Micah Richards said: “He (Mason) didn’t just make one mistake, he made three or four mistakes”
“This could cost Brighton something in the Premier League. These are not little mistakes; these are massive mistakes, that goal should have been allowed to stand.” Added Richards.
Mason became the spotlight in the news over the weekend after he was responsible for the huge confusion and chaos surrounding Brighton’s disallowed goal vs West Brom.
Lewis Dunk appeared to score from a quick free in the first half, but it was soon disallowed, then allowed and then eventually ruled out for good, after Mason viewed the pitch side monitor following advice from the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
Huge outrage sparked following the game which saw Brighton lose to West Brom thanks to a single Kyle Bartley goal, which happened before the incident. Fans and pundits were quick to show their disapproval towards the referee’s decision as well as VAR’s intervention.
Journalist, Rory Smith, also spoke on 5 Live stating how VAR was not to blame, and it was purely a mistake by Mason. “Strictly speaking VAR had nothing to do with this; this this was just a straight up old fashioned common or garden refereeing error.”
Smith then went on to say what the referee should have done in his situation: “All it needed was Lee Mason to say is ‘look the second whistle cancels out whatever I did first; the goal doesn’t stand, take the free kick again’ and there would have been a bit of a ‘hoo-ha’, but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as embarrassing as it actually was.”
Fellow pundit, Chris Sutton, says he was baffled on why the referee went to view the incident on the pitch side monitor: “The only reason I thought he went over to the monitor was maybe he was thinking ‘this is going to buy me a bit of time’”
“I don’t actually understand why else would have gone to the monitor; he made a mistake and panicked, but we all make mistakes, it’s just that one was particularly horrific.”
Further on in the programme, the pundits sparked a debate on whether referees should be mic’d up in the future.
Sutton said: “If the referees are mic’d up and can explain why they made the call, then I think that there would be a far better understanding across football”
“I think that they would get a lot more sympathy because they would be open and honest and authentic, this is the way I see it.” Sutton added.
Over the past week, a video has gone viral after it showed an Australian football referee mic’d up during a game. The video clearly showed how mic’ing up referees could work in the world of football and this sparked a huge reaction by fans, who now want the system to be implemented into the Premier League.
Despite the huge plea from fans across the world, Smith had his doubts on the system. He said: “My general view on mic’ing referees up or making them speak after games is that there if you interview the referee after a game and say, ‘why did you make that decision’, they will just say ‘well I thought it was right’.”
Richards was also against the idea of referees being ‘mic’d up stating: “I just think if we have to go down mic’ing up the referees, then our game has officially gone”
“I don’t think we need to mic up referees, I think we just need to give more confidence to the referees to say the VAR is just there to help you and it’s not going to intervene in every single scenario what happens on a football pitch”.
The full debate featuring Richards, Smith, Sutton and host Mark Chapman can be found on the BBC Sounds website by clicking here.
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