/ 21 August 2007

Ref apologises to Liverpool over red-card blunder

Rob Styles has apologised to Liverpool after admitting on Monday that he made a mistake in awarding a penalty to Chelsea during their 1-1 draw at Anfield at the weekend.

Styles also caused confusion by appearing to issue a second yellow card to the Blues’ Michael Essien.

The match official has accepted he made a mistake in penalising Steve Finnan and as a result he will not be given a match to referee this weekend.

”All referees enter into matches hoping not to make any mistakes but understanding that they may happen. What none of us want is for any mistake to potentially affect the result of the match,” said Styles. ”Yesterday, in mistakenly awarding a penalty, I accept that I may have affected the result of the match and for that I apologise.”

Styles awarded Chelsea a penalty that enabled them to equalise even though Finnan appeared to make no contact with Florent Malouda.

Referees’ chief Keith Hackett said officials have to be accountable for mistakes.

”We have in place systems that will analyse each decision a referee makes. Referees are aware of the accountability that exists, as are the managers and players, and we expect referees to get big decisions correct,” he said. ”On this occasion it was wrong and therefore Rob will not be officiating next weekend.

”I spoke to Rob this morning and obviously he is extremely disappointed with the decision and admitted he got it wrong. I have left a message with Rafael Benitez to apologise.”

Hackett also revealed assistant referee Ian Gosling will be given next weekend off, after he denied Fulham a late equaliser at home to Middlesbrough when striker David Healy clearly forced the ball over the line.

The Cottagers lost 2-1 to Boro at Craven Cottage.

”Clearly the assistant referee has made an error, so he won’t be operating next week for us either.”

The Premier League is to press ahead with trials on goal-line technology being developed by the company Hawkeye. Hackett said: ”It is still in its testing stage but we hope when it is judged to be fail-safe then it will be used. Everyone in football recognises that goal-line systems can provide help for the referee to make his decision.”

Meanwhile, Hackett will also ensure there is no repeat of the confusion when Styles appeared to book Essien when instead he was still showing the card to John Terry.

Hackett added: ”I’m informed by both the fourth official and Rob he retained the card shown to John Terry, then held the card to indicate a direct free kick, and failed to put the card away. So it was a basic, if you like, admin error as against an error in application of law. We’ll look at the video to ensure we don’t get a repeat of that.”

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard criticised Styles’s performance, saying he ”cracked” under pressure on the penalty decision.

”I don’t want to say too much because I will get into trouble, but the referee didn’t play well,” the England midfielder said. ”Whether it was because the Chelsea players were talking I don’t know, but in the end he’s cracked and made a bad decision. It wasn’t a penalty and I hope he comes out and says sorry now. We have to apologise as players if we make mistakes, so I hope he does the same.”

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho revealed Essien feared he had been sent off.

The Ghana midfielder, who played at right-back due to Chelsea’s injury crisis, found himself booked after just 12 minutes for a foul on Liverpool’s Alvaro Arbeloa.

But in a match that produced nine yellow cards from Styles, Essien thought he had received a second caution as Styles waved a yellow card over his head.

”Michael was honestly very frightened; he thought he had been booked again,” Mourinho said. ”The referee then explained that he had only booked one player, John Terry, but Essien stood there for a long time and he said afterwards that he believed he had been cautioned again.” — Sapa-AFP