Nottingham Forest had sought PGMOL to provide over referee and VAR audio during the heated aftermath of Sunday’s loss to Everton.
Nottingham Forest will apparently be given their demand and hear the match officials’ audio from Sunday’s match against Everton, while PGMOL chief Howard Webb plans to discuss officiating issues on next week’s Mic’d Up show.
Forest requested that the governing body that makes appointments to top-flight fixtures hand over the audio of discussions between referee Anthony Taylor and VAR Stuart Atwell that led to the three penalty decisions in the Toffees’ favour as part of their efforts to double down on comments made about the integrity of Premier League officiating. Simultaneously, they requested that referee allegiance guidelines be revisited.
It occurred as the Premier League and Football Association launched investigations into the club’s controversial public statements, including those made by manager Nuno Espirito Santo, defender Neco Williams, and advisor Mark Clattenburg.
They are not the first club to do so; Liverpool requested access to the officials’ audio of an incident that resulted in a genuine goal being disallowed during their loss to Tottenham. In this case, however, Forest is said to be dissatisfied with Forest’s recent conduct in challenging Atwell’s honesty, making it uncertain whether the request would be granted.
However, the Mail Online reports that PGMOL is willing to secretly hand over the audio while the club considers its options.
When Webb became the organization’s chief last year, he pledged greater transparency to the broader public about the decision-making process. This effort has seen the monthly broadcast of a programme dubbed ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’, in which former striker Michael Owen and Webb address the most pressing refereeing concerns of the day and release referee audio.
According to the Mail, the next episode of the series will be filmed on Monday, April 29, and there are currently no plans to disclose all of the audio publicly – though this was also claimed before full transcriptions of the Diaz incident were revealed last October.
PGMOL has declined to comment on the three individual penalty rulings.
