Referees’ allegiances to teams in the Premier League won’t be made public this season after the PGMOL made an immediate U-turn on Howard Webb’s proposal.
Each season officials are made to inform the PGMOL of any potential conflict of interest that could arise if they were to officiate certain teams. Earlier this week, PGMOL chief Webb confirmed plans for the allegiances of his referees to be made public.
Speaking to The Times, Webb said: “Officials are asked to declare any specific interests in advance of the season and as the season goes on should any of those things change.
“That’s being made public, I believe, so you can see what that looks like, what those declarations of interest are. We review each of those and then make adjustments if we feel there is a conflict of interest based on if you declare yourself as a supporter of a club.
“If you play for a club as well, obviously we’re trying to get more players into refereeing, so that’s a new area that we need to work with.”
He added: “If you’ve got any personal connections to people who work for clubs as well, we’ll make an evaluation of all those and then should we feel there is a conflict of interest that will be recorded and taken into account on the appointments.”
That decision came after Nottingham Forest accused VAR official Stuart Attwell of supporting Luton Town, who they were involved in a relegation battle with, last season when they were denied three penalties in a 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park.
For Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, Webb’s proposal could have potentially stopped certain referees from officiating their matches even if they didn’t support any of the three clubs.
However, The Times has now confirmed that the PGMOL have reversed their decision, with Martyn Ziegler writing on Thursday: “Whoa – PGMOL doing sudden reverse ferret and say the refs’ allegiances won’t be made public despite Webb saying: ‘Officials are asked to declare any specific interests. That’s being made public so you can see what that looks like as well, what those declarations of interest are. “‘
