PGMOL Refs defiant on standards

Referees chiefs are insistent match officials’ standards have never been so good despite stinging criticism from the former head of Professional Games Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL).

Keith Hackett has called for his successor Mike Riley to be removed from his position with PGMOL and labelled the current crop of officials as the “worst that we have seen”, citing “over 20 major errors” during the Christmas period.

PGMOL would not respond directly but released statistics showing standards had improved in every available measure in the five years since Hackett left the organisation. These include accuracy on major decisions, up to 95% from 94.1%, on decisions in the penalty box (98%) and offsides, 99% compared to 92% five years ago when Riley took over.