Karren Brady slams referees and VAR after latest West Ham controversy
Karren Brady is refusing to relent in her attack on refereeing standards in the Premier League after West Ham were caught up in VAR controversy yet again.
Last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Chelsea was disappointing for a number of reasons, but not least because of Fabian Balbuena’s dismissal towards the latter stages that was initially given the all-clear, before the VAR instructed referee Chris Kavanagh to take another look.
The decision to hand the Paraguayan his marching orders was derided by countless figures in football and justice was served when his red card was rescinded, the second time this has occurred to West Ham this season after Tomas Soucek was also given a reprieve for a red card at Fulham.
But vice-chairman Brady won’t let recent events subside, taking aim in her Sun column at what she perceives to be unfair Irons treatment.
“It is the current system of pressurising refs by implication that warrants the equivalent of a red card,” she said.
“The Stockley Park mob, blinking in front of an array of screens…the refereeing itself has been poor this season, possibly the worst I have seen in the Premier League.”
She added: “To Soucek, it was defamation. Our midfielder had not previously been sent off in more than 200 games and there he was walking off the pitch after a pure accident. It was Mike Dean who sent him to the stands at Fulham.
“His career is studded with such incidents, including another involving my club in 2017 when his dismissal of Sofiane Feghouli was rescinded.”
Costly calls
Moyes will be crossing everything that we’re not the centre of another controversial incident this week, and that we stay well away from the referee’s notebook.
We’ve been hampered by red cards for the past two weeks with both proving costly in our bid to get back into the game and achieve positive results.
The first, for Craig Dawson, was pretty indefensible, but we all know about last weekend’s refereeing antics for Balbuena’s dismissal.
Any more decisions like that and we can begin to big goodbye to a top-four spot and our Champions League chances.
As Brady made reference to, it seems like we are one of the clubs that have been unfairly picked on and been the brunt of a series of refereeing howlers.
Something needs to be done about it because it’s wholly unfair and frustrating.
In other West Ham news, View: ‘Monster’ ace dropped, three big changes – Irons predicted XI v Burnley.
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