Coventry and Leeds started off in controversial fashion. (Credit: Imago & LUTV)

Coventry v Leeds: Ex-FIFA official furious as controversial footage emerges

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:

05 Feb 2025, 4:42 pm

Leeds United should have been awarded an early penalty against Coventry City, according to Keith Hackett.

Joe Rodon went down in the Coventry penalty area while attacking a fourth-minute corner.

The Wales defender required treatment from Leeds' physio after seemingly picking up a head injury following a tussle with Coventry's Liam Kitching.

Replays then showed that as Rodon was trying to attack the corner kick, he was grappled and pulled down to the ground by Kitching, who left the Whites in 2019 and signed for the Sky Blues in 2023.

After seeing footage of the incident, former PGMOL general manager Hackett believes it was a nailed-on penalty for Leeds as he hit out at the overall reaction to penalty-box grappling by referees.

Joe Rodon should have been awarded penalty

"Once again we see a referee - who is not on his own - not penalising a clear act of grappling," the former Premier League and FIFA official told MOT Leeds News.

"A clear penalty kick should have resulted.

"We are supposed to be watching football and not rugby."

After the grappling, Rodon went to the ground and it seemed that Kitching's leg went into the Welshman's head.

After a few minutes of treatment, he was able to continue.

Joe Rodon received treatment in Coventry v Leeds. (Credit: LUTV)

Leeds march on at top of Championship table

Fortunately for the West Yorkshire side, they weren't left to rue Dean Whitestone's decision not to award Leeds a penalty for that incident involving Rodon and Kitching.

Joel Piroe scored a brilliant goal in the 17th minute before Jayden Bogle made the most of some serious poor defending - and a goalkeeping howler - to double United's lead after 26 minutes.

Leeds' win over Frank Lampard's Coventry means they're now five points clear at the top of the Championship table.

The Whites have, however, played one more game than third-placed Sheffield United, who can close that gap down to two points if they do as they're expected and beat Portsmouth at Bramall Lane on Saturday (8 February).

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Leeds United

Coventry City

Keith Hackett

Frank Lampard