(Credit: Imago/Sky Sports)

Keith Hackett annoyed as EFL make statement on Middlesbrough v Leeds United official

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

Published on:

11 Apr 2025, 1:42 am

Leeds United had two goals wrongly called as offside in the 1-0 win over Middlesbrough and the controversy continues to rage on.

Ao Tanaka and Patrick Bamford both had perfectly good goals ruled out in each half by assistant referee Darren Williams after Dan James had given the Elland Road outfit an early lead.

Williams also disallowed strikes from Wilfried Gnonto and Joel Piroe earlier in the season, and Daniel Farke called out his record against the Whites after the tense win over Michael Carrick's side as frustrations boiled over.

Bamford had a legitimate goal ruled out. (Credit: Imago)

EFL announce 'punishment' for Williams

The beleaguered assistant referee has now seemingly been dropped to League One for the next round of fixtures after his latest Leeds mishap.

Williams will run the line in the third-tier clash between Wycombe Wanderers and Stevenage on Saturday (12 April) rather than officiating in the Championship.

However, Keith Hackett exclusively told MOT Leeds News that the punishment is not enough and should have been harsher.

"There is no doubt that the assistant was wrong to flag two Leeds United goals offside," he said.

"In my era of being in charge of the PGMOL, he would not have been appointed to a game and would instead be given operational advice.

"Appointing to a lower league is not a sanction."

Elland Road may host top-flight football next season. (Credit: Imago)

Leeds need to put decisions behind them

While the decisions were blatantly wrong and could have damned Leeds to more dropped points on a different day, they did not on this occasion, in a huge relief for Farke.

The Whites ended a run of just one win in six matches and because of results elsewhere, find themselves back at the summit of the second tier with five matches left to play.

Championship	Played	GD	Points
1. Leeds United	41	+52	85
2. Burnley	41	+43	85
3. Sheffield United	41	+25	83

The race for promotion

They need to keep their composure and focus on their final five matches and ensure that they seal a return to the Premier League for the first time since the 2022-23 campaign and do not slip up.

They cannot afford another playoff campaign as they always struggle in the end-of-season showdown and need to avoid a similar heartache to last season when they lost in the final to Southampton.

Keith Hackett

Championship