FORMER Premier League referee Mark Halsey says some officials “don’t know the game” following another string of controversial decisions over the weekend.
Halsey, 63, took charge of top-flight matches in England from 1999 to 2013.
Now he is a SunSport analyst and columnist and analyses decision made by the current crop of Premier League referees every weekend.
And in the latest episode of The Whistleblower with The Sun he highlighted two particular calls he believes were mistakes.
The first of those was the penalty Liverpool were awarded which won them the game against Southampton after the ball struck Yukinari Sugawara’s arm in the box.
Halsey went on to insist it is the type of decision which highlights referees’ lack of knowledge of the game outside the written laws.
He said: “I thought it was a bit harsh [the Sugawara handball]. You can’t run with your arms by your side. You can’t jump with your arms by your side.
“It’s come off his chest onto his arm. They’re in a natural position for that phrase of play.
“That’s what I’m saying about training education with our referees about incidents like that with handball. It’s about knowing the game.
“It’s all right knowing the laws of the game. It’s about knowing the game of football.”
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Halsey has also taken umbrage with Wilfred Ndidi only being shown a yellow card for a challenge on Cole Palmer during Leicester’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea.
Ndidi appeared to rake his boot down the Achilles of the England international, but avoided a straight red.
Yet Halsey saw the incident very differently, describing it as a “career-threatening challenge”.
He added: “I thought it was a very, very poor challenge when I saw it again.
“In real time Andy Madley hasn’t recognised the intensity of the challenge.
“I was surprised when the Premier League match centre came out and said there was no intensity.
It’s all right knowing the laws of the game. It’s about knowing the game of football.
Mark Halsey
“But I’ll say it again, I said it earlier, when a player lunges at an opponent in that manner, from one or two feet, from the front, from the side, from the back, it has to be sanctioned a serious foul play.
“That was the worst challenge of the weekend. And I was very, very surprised that Paul Tierney, the VAR, did not recommend a review.
“That was a career-threatening challenge. It’s the training and education of VAR, when to come in and when not to come in.”
