‘There’s too many examples of players clearly pulling people back’
PGMO’s referees will not ‘forget all about it’ in September, chief says
Howard Webb has warned fans they can expect to see more penalties this season after he instructed referees to have another go at cracking one of the most incorrigible problems in the Premier League: players clinging on to each other in the penalty area.
New guidance on how to deal with holding has been shared with referees by Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO), with the aim of cutting the number of incidents where a player’s movement is impeded by an opponent. It follows consultation with club officials and leading players who all complained about the practice.
“The feedback that we had is that there’s just a few too many examples of players clearly pulling people back impacting their ability to move to the ball or some clear extreme actions are not being penalised,” said Webb, the chief referee officer, before the Premier League season starts on Friday night. “They’re the ones I expect us to catch. Therefore I would expect this time next year for there to have been a few more penalties given for holding offences than what we’ve seen this year. But not a huge swing of the pendulum.”
