Howard Webb reveals rule change that must happen in Premier League – ‘It’s gone too far’

PGMOL chief and ex-Premier League referee Howard Webb has admitted that he feels more safeguarding for referees is required in the top-flight, highlighting a lack of ‘forgiveness’ from supporters

Howard Webb says he wants better protection for referees when asked what rule he wants to see implemented in football.

Webb, who officiated in the Premier League from 2003 to 2014, is now the chief refereeing officer for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited. He appeared on The Overlap podcast alongside Gary Neville, Jill Scott, Wayne Rooney, Ian Wright and Roy Keane to discuss how refereeing in the modern game has evolved in different ways.

Detailing the change he wants to see, Webb said: “In general terms, I mean, there’s a real lack of forgiveness in the game at the moment. I mean it’s like the thing that kind of really frustrates me a little bit is that any error that you make is seen as something different.

“It’s seen as a contrived decision that’s done for different reasons. It’s really not, you make a judgment in the moment. All of our referees want to do a good job, they don’t want to be spoken about, they want to go out there, be anonymously competent, they don’t want to go there and upset people.

“Sometimes they’ll call situations wrongly, it’s a sad sort of reflection really. It used to be correct or incorrect, now it’s correct or corrupt in too many cases now – which is just nonsense really.”

Jill Scott then pressed Webb again on his proposed rule change, which appeared to revolve around better safeguarding for referees, before Neville continued: “You don’t want the criticism to be as harsh as it is, and that’s basically the angle that you’re talking about is – basically be it the way officials are referred to as potentially corrupt?”

He added: “You think it’s gone too far at times in the last 12 months?” to which the former Premier League referee replied: “Yeah, I think there has been a creep over time, it has.”

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