Officiating has been a constant topic of conversation when discussing the negatives of the Premier League and throughout this season this topic has not ceased. In fact there have been many instances of fans, pundits, clubs and even managers calling out the PGMOL for poor officiating in the Premier League.
One of the clubs that has been at constant war with the PGMOL is Nottingham Forest, who after losing 2-0 to Everton, put out a scathing post on X (formerly known as twitter) stating that their 'patience has been tested multiple times' and that 'NFFC will now consider their options'.
Since then, Nottingham Forest have released an official statement and are looking into this matter as to why they have suffered so many poor decisions this season. The midlands club were denied three clear and obvious penalties against the Toffees and have only been awarded one penalty all season. Yet it opens the question to many, why is officiating in the Premier League, which is hailed the best league in the world, prone to multiple human errors on a weekly basis?
Despite how entertaining this Premier League season has been, there have been many bust ups with officials and VAR given how many poor human errors there have been. Albeit last season we saw some awful errors, this year has also been littered with terrible mistakes that could possibly cause teams to miss out on the title or even be relegated.
In fact Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have also been a club with many low VAR moments this season. One most notable incident was Anthony Gordon's infamous winner against the North London side. The ball seemingly went out of play and then a clear foul on Gabriel meant that Gordon was able to score the late goal to seal the three points. Mikel Arteta went into a now famous rant in his press conference naming the decisions 'An absolute disgrace'. He was charged by the FA for his comments but then beat his charge by suiting up with a lawyer who argued he used his Spanish tongue and was misinterpreted.
It was later mentioned on ref watch that the push on Gabriel was indeed a foul and the ball seemed to be out of play which should have resulted in an overruled goal. This example highlights how infuriating the poor officiating is for many teams, and this game can be one that haunts Arsenal if they do not lift the Premier League trophy at the end of the season. Furthermore, many clubs since then have followed Arsenal and have enlisted consultants on refereeing decisions, Nottingham Forest have hired Ex-referee Mark Clattenburg as their consultant and he led the complaints after their loss to Everton.
One of the main issues that many fans have with officiating in the Premier League, has been the PGMOL's reluctance to develop and take on board new initiatives to better officiating. Most notably, the PGMOL turned down the use of an automated offside system which is successfully used in Ligue 1, The Champions League and was even enrolled in the men's Qatar and women's Australia World Cups.
The introduction of this would see less human error and a much more reliable VAR system for on field referees to use. However, shortly after this, Arsenal were robbed of two points as VAR officials failed to draw the lines for an offside goal in their game against Brentford, which ended in a draw.
When the PGMOL first turned down this system, they instead enlisted four more cameras to help with reducing human error but again we can look at examples such as Luis Diaz's goal for Liverpool away at Tottenham being wrongfully ruled out despite being onside, showing that VAR is constantly letting down teams. These errors also open up debates on the integrity of officials and this is a detrimental conversation for football.
Overall, refereeing in England is poor when compared to its European counterparts. For a league hailed as the best and most competitive in the world, the refereeing mistakes hinder it massively. Many clubs have a fair argument when questioning the integrity and quality of officiating in the Premier League and until the standard is raised, the Premier League will continue to be at a disadvantage.