Richard Keys has had his say on the weekend’s controversial VAR calls in the Premier League - by letting rip at former PGMOL chief Mike Riley.
It was a disastrous weekend of high-profile gaffes, leading to Howard Webb, the new chief of referees’ body PGMOL, summoning all top flight officials to attend a meeting at Stockley Park on Tuesday to discuss what went wrong.
Webb also decided to pull Video Assistant Referee John Brooks, whose error led to Brighton wrongly having a goal disallowed for offside, being removed from duty for Monday night’s Merseyside derby and Wednesday’s top of the table showdown between Arsenal and Manchester City. Arsenal themselves were on the wrong side of a VAR error, with Lee Mason not noticing Christian Norgaard was offside in the build up to Ivan Toney's equaliser in Brentford's 1-1 draw at the Emirates.
Certainly Webb is being proactive in attempting to address issues among top-flight officials, and being front-facing when club’s have reasonable gripes; for example, he met Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui after their controversial FA Cup third round tie at Liverpool saw a late goal disallowed.
Former Sky Sports presenter Keys, now lead anchor on Bein Sports’ Premier League coverage, is delighted with Webb “having the balls to admit VAR got it wrong”.
But writing an article about the use of VAR on his own blog, Keys offered his own withering take on ex-refs’ chief Riley and his tenure.
"It’s never easy to accept decisions when your own team has been wronged," declared Keys. "But it makes it a damned sight harder when officials gang up and refuse to admit their mistake.
"That’s the world we lived in under Mike Riley. He was an incompetent weak ref before being appointed top ref at the PGMOL. Like every schoolboy who’d been bullied before finding their way into a position of power, Riley exacted his revenge at the PGMOL.
"It was his way or the highway - and he wanted the last say on everything.
"Even when Sheffield United scored a perfectly good goal at Villa - that we all saw was in - Riley came up with some nonsense as to why VAR couldn’t intervene and give the goal. Bournemouth were relegated as a consequence - not Villa, who should’ve been."
That wasn't the end of Keys' dig at Riley, casting his mind back to an Arsenal controversy, from their game against Liverpool back in October, to further his point.
"Oh, did anyone hear the howls of protest from Arsenal when [Bukayo] Saka looked like he might have been offside in the build up to [Gabriel] Martinelli’s opening goal v Liverpool?" No. Nor me.
"Remember - VAR told us the lino didn’t flag and the cameras weren’t calibrated properly, so the onfield decision of goal stood because they couldn’t prove Saka was offside. I could. I could see he was.
"Oh - Riley was in charge then."
