Referees’ chief Howard Webb has rubbished a conspiracy theory among Arsenal fans that officials overlooked a red card for Dominik Szoboszlai this season.
This season has already seen a number of ridiculous subplots, but perhaps none more so than the obsession with players being booked for kicking the ball away.
That was fuelled by Arsenal fans and their inability to comprehend why Declan Rice was sent off for disrupting a quick free-kick in their 1-1 draw with Brighton in September.
Weeks later, Rice’s teammate Leandro Trossard was sent off for a mindless decision to boot the ball away during their 2-2 draw with Man City.
There was 1.07 seconds between Michael Oliver’s whistle and Leandro Trossard kicking the ball away.
Last weekend, there was 1.13 seconds between Oliver’s whistle and Szoboszlai kicking the ball away during Liverpool’s 1-0 loss vs Forest
Same referee, same offence, same… pic.twitter.com/fSAXL2xT4x
— Mo (@Mo_Arsenal9) September 23, 2024
Part of Arsenal fans’ attempts to call a conspiracy against them within PGMOL saw them spot a situation involving Szoboszlai in the closing stages of Liverpool’s 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest at Anfield.
With a foul blown for Forest, Szoboszlai pelted the ball across the penalty area in frustration, with incredulity from north London that he wasn’t booked.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, PGMOL chief Webb explained why the instances were “incomparable” and how it would have been “crazy” to reprimand Liverpool’s No. 8.
“There was a comparison made a couple of weeks ago between what Trossard did in the City-Arsenal game and what Szoboszlai did in the Liverpool-Forest game,” Webb explained.
“Well they’re really incomparable in terms of the impact.
“One happened on a free-kick to Man City in an attacking area in added time at the end of the first half, Trossard kicked the ball away, prevented City from even being able to think about restarting the game quickly.
“I’m sure they would have wanted to, or at least have the option to.
“The other one Liverpool were down at home to Forest, 1-0, it’s in 90+4 minutes, there’s an offside flag given or a foul given against Liverpool,
“Szoboszlai, in frustration, kicks the ball across the penalty area – which wastes his own time.
“It would be crazy if we cautioned him at that point. Why would we caution him?
“At that point, with kicking the ball away, Forest are like ‘thanks a lot, you’re doing our job for us here’.
“We’d be seen to be totally out of touch with the game in that situation.
“Whereas the other one was impactful on City being able to restart the game, because there were players there to restart, in this situation there were no Forest players there. They wouldn’t have restarted quickly anyway.
“You ask us to have some understanding of the game, so that made total sense to me.”
