The Gunners were charged by FA after players protest red card for Lewis-Skelly.
Arsenal fined £65,000 for Lewis-Skelly red card reaction
The Gunners have now been fined £65,000 for their reaction. They failed to handle their players following Myles Lewis-Skelly’s dismissal. They were left to 10 men in their 1-0 win over Wolves at Molineux in the Premier League.
The Football Association (FA) charged the north London side with the fine. They were full of emotions after referee Michael Oliver dismissed the young midfielder. He was sent off for a challenge on Wolves’ Matt Doherty. Arsenal players quickly surrounded Oliver in protest, with their emotions at peak.
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Darren England supported Oliver’s call. And he ruled it out as a serious foul play. Although, London side later appealed, and the youngster’s three match ban was removed.
Despite the winning appeal, the Gunners were fined by the FA. That lead to an independent regulatory commission to impose fine of £65,000. The club’s frustration was quite seen at the Molineux Stadium. However, the governing body kept to their take on enforcing rules regarding player conduct.
Michael Oliver was abused and given threats following his call. Referee’s body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) confirmed that the police were looking into it. The threats and abuses on Oliver and his family on social media are being looked at.
Mikel Arteta’s team got the three points in that game though. There were questions raised regarding the officiating throughout the campaign. It sparked debates over officiating consistency and player conduct.
Howard Webb on the red card to Lewis-Skelly
The PGMOL chief Howard Webb shared his opinion on the dismissal of Miles Lewis-Skelly against Wolves. Before his three-match ban got overturned, Webb says that the sending-off the player was the wrong decision. However, he defended Micheal Oliver. He says that call was not a ‘horrendous’ one.
The chief believes that England should have intervened. They should’ve noticed the ‘glanced studs’ from Miles that would have kept him on the pitch. The assistant VAR also referred about the studs in the audio.
On the latest episode of Match Officials Mic’d Up, Webb talked about the incident.
He said: “From the outset, we would prefer a yellow card in this situation.
“Clearly the referee on the day felt the actions of Myles Lewis-Skelly, he saw the player moving in towards an opponent without any ability or intention of playing the ball – with the intention of stopping the opponent. And the referee sees a raised foot make high contact and the opponent went down.
“The referee felt it was serious foul play, the VAR checked the footage to see if the call was clearly and obviously wrong and he felt it wasn’t – seeing that the contact was quite high up on the leg.
“But we know that for serious foul play, we need excessive force or brutality and what we see here is that high contact [just] glancing and coming off the leg quite quickly.
“So for that reason, everybody pretty much in the game has formed the same conclusion that this is falling short of serious foul play – because of that glancing contact. Because the studs don’t really go right into the leg, they glance in before coming down onto the foot.”
Threats and abuse to officials are unacceptable
After the incident, match referee was faced with social media abuse and threats. The PGMOL expressed the situation as ‘appalling’.
The refereeing body got in touch with the police and the investigations were then started. Michael Oliver returned to work straight away. He took charge of the Ipswich vs Southampton and Everton vs Liverpool fixtures in February.
The PGMOL chief shared his thoughts on the abuse towards the officials and said, “Really disappointing.”
Author’s Opinion
The decision in the Arsenal vs Wolves game was opposed by many. That incident sparked a big outrage by the Gunners fans on the social media.
However, with the Englishman’s three-game ban being removed, cleared the air.
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