The Premier League opening weekend’s clash between Manchester United and Wolves was spoilt by a huge referee blunder. The match at Old Trafford went deep into injury time and in the 6th minute of injury time a mistake was made by the referees which saw their team being suspended from this weekend. The Red Devils won their Premier League opener against the visitors thanks to a header by Raphael Varane in the second half.
Penalty incident
In a last-ditch effort to tie the score, Wolves launched a barrage of attempts at the Manchester United goal. When Andre Onana collided with Craig Dawson in the box, a VAR review appeared to be in order. To the annoyance of many, referee Simon Hooper chose not to award a penalty despite a VAR review into what appeared to be unarguable penalty-worthy contact.
After the game, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil confirmed that former official Jonathan Moss, who now works for the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL), told him that the incident deserved a penalty, adding fuel to the fire of criticism of the officials’ performance that day. The officials who were engaged in the error of judgement have now apparently received punishment from the refereeing organisation.
Referees suspended
The match officials from the game at Old Trafford, referee Hooper, Video Assistant Referee Michael Salisbury and assistant VAR Richard West, have been removed from the Premier League games scheduled for next weekend (Matchday 2), according to a report by Sky Sports this morning.
This is not the first time the body has come forward to acknowledge wrongdoing; referee Lee Mason was punished last year for a mistake he made during an Arsenal vs. Brentford game.
It is unclear whether the officials from the Manchester United vs Wolves game will face additional sanctions, but as the Wolves manager said, the Wolves team still feels aggrieved because there are no policies in place to correct outcomes affected by poor referee decisions.
Manchester United are lucky that the decision went in their favour as a penalty could have resulted in a red card and a suspension for Onana. Onana’s backup in the United squad is Dean Henderson who is coming after a thigh injury.
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