Africa-Press – Kenya. Nottingham Forest say they are “considering their options” over “extremely poor” refereeing decisions following their 2-0 defeat at Everton.
The club said they had “warned” the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) that “the VAR is a Luton fan but they didn’t change him”.
“Three extremely poor decisions — three penalties not given — which we simply cannot accept,” the club said on X. “Our patience has been tested multiple times.”
Although they did not name the official, the video assistant referee was Stuart Attwell. Nottingham Forest issued the highly critical post on the social network about five minutes after full-time in the match at Goodison Park — which left the club one point above the relegation zone.
BBC Sport is contacting referees’ board the PGMOL for comment, and understands the Football Association is aware of the post and investigating.
All three penalty claims centred on incidents involving Everton’s veteran ex-England defender Young.
They felt he caught the back of Gio Reyna’s boot in attempting to make a tackle when the game was goalless.
Then, late in the first half, after Everton had taken the lead, a Callum Hudson-Odoi cross struck Young on the arm.
The third incident happened after the interval, with the Toffees still 1-0 ahead, as Young tangled with Hudson-Odoi in the area but the officials ruled he had won the ball cleanly.
“I don’t understand the reason and the decision of [referee] Anthony Taylor and VAR Stuart Attwell, because I see the images,” said Nuno Espirito Santo.
“What I can tell you is this is a general feeling that has been with us — we are trying to ignore it but so many times it is repeating, bad decisions against us, even taking things from us.
“It is hard to take. There is a penalty on Gio Reyna, it’s a kick, don’t tell me that is not contact. It’s a penalty, then a handball, then the situation of the incident with Callum.
“So it’s understandable that we react like this as a club because we want to get things right. We don’t want bad referees, we want good decisions.
“OK if we lost the game today and there were no incidents, we take it, we didn’t play good enough to win the match but we did things right in the right moments and we are disappointed with the decisions.”
In August, Forest lodged a complaint with the PGMOL over the performance of the officials in their 3-2 defeat at Manchester United.
While in March, the club’s newly appointed referee analyst – and retired referee – Mark Clattenburg criticised the officiating in the build-up to Liverpool’s dramatic winner at the City Ground.
Forest are still hoping to get some respite from their appeal against the deduction of four points for breaching profit and sustainability rules.
Nuno added: “I am aware of the complaint that the club was not comfortable with the VAR but it is not important if he is a fan of another club.
“He is setting down in the chair, he has time to assess images. I just don’t understand why we are always on the end of these bad decisions. “I share the feeling of the club because is it not only this game. It is has been a while that we have had poor decisions going against us. It is not an excuse but we are not happy with the work of the referees.”
John Murray said: “Mark Clattenburg was once considered the best referee we had in this country, he has now got a role with Nottingham Forest – you would think he would be very much involved with this.
“So Nottingham Forest with that statement will be confident with what they are saying, but I still think it is a remarkable thing to say. The FA, Howard Webb and the PGMOL — it will certainly ruffle feathers from them. What they have to say about this is the next step.”
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