‘Howard Webb should be concerned after Leeds United vs Birmingham City controversy’ – Keith Hackett
Leeds United faced Birmingham City in the FA Cup as refereeing decisions once again came to the fore.
Saturday evening sparked plenty of questions surrounding match officials when Chris Kavanagh got at least three decisions massively wrong as Newcastle United secured victory over Aston Villa.
Tammy Abraham’s opening goal was offside, Lucas Digne should have been sent off for a high challenge on Jacob Murphy, and the Frenchman avoided giving away a penalty for handball.
There were several other calls that raised questions for the referee, and that trend continued into Leeds’ away clash at St Andrews.
Simon Hooper was in charge of the fourth round clash but didn’t cover himself in glory, something which will raise further issues for Howard Webb.
Lukas Nmecha goal vs Birmingham City causes fresh concern
Lukas Nmecha grabbed the opening goal against Blues as his ferocious finish left Ryan Allsop with no chance of making a save.
That was the only true moment of quality from Leeds in front of goal, but it was ultimately quite lucky after closer inspection.
The German may have been offside in the build-up to the goal, something which VAR may have picked up on had it been in operation for the FA Cup fourth round.
After the frustrations of Villa Park on Saturday, former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has suggested that current technical director Webb should be concerned by what happened at St Andrews.
Speaking exclusively to MOT Leeds News, Hackett said: “The FA Cup is under the control of The FA Referees Department.
“They do the appointing of match officials.
“Howard Webb should be concerned about the poor offside decisions that we have witnessed in this round of the FA Cup.
“We had a specific training programme in my time in office that all the Assts participated in.
“I suggest that Webb should run that session and the tests.“
Leeds United benefit from VAR-less FA Cup fourth round
All of this from Hackett ultimately won’t bother Daniel Farke, as they benefited from a call that otherwise would have gone the other way.
There is no guarantee that Nmecha would have been ruled offside by VAR, but the initial footage looks as if it would have been an extremely close call.
The wider issues surrounding these decisions suggest that the match officials are now struggling without technology to back them up.
Some supporters want to get rid of VAR, but this FA Cup matchweek has shown exactly what good it can do, even if it will go against Leeds from time to time.
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