Hodgson speaks out on refs' falling standards

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson is falling out of love with European club football because of the standard of refereeing.

Hodgson is a long-standing member of UEFA’s technical committee but has been staggered by poor refereeing in Fulham’s Europa League games.

Everton boss David Moyes has also questioned the value of playing in the Europa League, and Hodgson said: “At the moment, I would agree with David Moyes entirely. I don’t believe Fulham have been able to play on a level playing field.

“The only reason I am at that point is because of the way we have been treated in the Europa League.”

Hodgson said there had been mistakes in just about every match Fulham have played in the competition.

He added: “We play at home against Amkar Perm, and I witness one of the worst challenges I have ever seen in football – and the referee decides to punish it with a yellow card.

“In the next match against Basle, [Andy] Johnson is pulled down from behind in the penalty box – and the referee decides to give neither a penalty nor a card to the player.

“Then we play against Rome at home and have a player sent off when he is clearly not the last man and actually doesn’t foul him anyway.

“Finally we go to Rome and have two players sent off – one of which is the most laughable decisions I have come across in many, many years of football.

“When I weigh all those things up I’m very, very disappointed – because we have taken the Europa League very seriously and wanted to play well.”