David Moyes frustrated by inconsistent refereeing and lack of transparency | OneFootball

David Moyes has been left frustrated by inconsistent refereeing standards and claims that the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) refuses to engage in discussion with managers.

Fulham were awarded a penalty against Nottingham Forest after Douglas Luiz was found guilty of fouling fellow Brazilian Kevin inside the box, with referee Anthony Taylor pointing to the spot straightaway. Raul Jimenez converted from 12 yards to secure a 1-0 win for his side.

The irony is that just 48 hours earlier, the Toffees were denied a penalty when William Saliba kicked Thierno Barry’s foot inside the box in a similar situation. On-field official Sam Barrott paid no heed and even Michael Salisbury on VAR opted to ignore the incident.

“I was half-choking last night when I saw the decision given and ours wasn’t,” said the Everton manager. “It feels as though certain clubs get those decisions and other clubs don’t. We seem to be on the latter side of that.

“There was one earlier in the season at Brentford with [Virgil] van Dijk which was quite similar and I think eventually it was given. We are disappointed it wasn’t given on the night and we are looking at others which have been.”

Asked if Everton were looking to present their case to the referees’ association, Moyes said, “I don’t really know. They don’t make it easy whatever you want. They don’t want to have a conversation about it really. They will have [one], but they don’t want to because they’re finding it probably very difficult to explain things.

“I think we’re just finding probably that last night’s decision was not dissimilar to ours, but it was given. The referee on field gave the decision immediately.”

Moyes further added that his concern with refereeing standards extended beyond what happened against his team. Citing the Jake O’Brien handball that led to Viktor Gyokeres scoring the match-winning penalty for Arsenal, Moyes commented on how Barrott and his assistants missed the handball and needed VAR review to make that decision.

“Surely the on-field referee didn’t need VAR to decide that Jake had his two hands up in the air?” Moyes said.

“And that’s me going against my own team. Why did he need to wait on VAR to make that decision? He had to go to the pitchside monitor. What was the linesman doing on the side? The linesman was behind it where he must have seen his arms going up, but he didn’t make the call.

“The point I’m making is that surely they should be making the call. Maybe he didn’t see [William] Saliba kicking, but the consistency comes from those sort of actions – have you seen if he kicked through the back of someone’s leg or he gets there first?

“I don’t want to see soft ­penalty kicks. I’m not a believer of soft penalty kicks, maybe that was my ­thinking after the [Arsenal] game, but after what I saw last night, I’m saying: ‘Well, if that’s the way it’s going to be, why are we not getting the same decisions?’”

Reader Comments (10)

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Svein-Roger Jensen 2 Posted 26/12/2025 at 11:19:53

Yes its clearly corruption. The agenda against the club is evident for everyone to see.

It’s been killing us for years and the once beautiful game is now completely rotten to the core.

Mike Powell 3 Posted 26/12/2025 at 13:41:59

It's no longer a level playing field. If you play against one of the Sky 6, then we all know they get all the decisions.

If it's a 50-50 challenge, you know who gets the foul... It's corrupt.

Raymond Fox 4 Posted 26/12/2025 at 14:40:52

Mike, Sven, Paul, there has always been a bias towards the usual suspects. Even if you don't believe there is an intentional bias, there will be a unconscious bias.

The officials like to cosy up to the biggest clubs; it's up to us to dislodge one of them.

Darrel Pugh 5 Posted 26/12/2025 at 18:46:05

David Moyes is annoyed that his point-blank refusal to score goals but try to win every game by nicking one in the 90th minute is being thwarted by referees who can tip the balance with a corrupt decision at 0-0.

Instead of adjusting his coaching style to win the game, thereby nullifying most poor refereeing decisions, David blames the referee, before claiming his £5M-a-year salary.

Tony Abrahams 6 Posted 26/12/2025 at 21:22:44

I'm not David Moyes's biggest fan, Darrel, but you can't argue with the very simple and logical manner in which he has spelt this out.

Nobody wants to see soft penalties, but everybody wants to see consistency, and quite frankly the standards regarding consistency are disgraceful.

9 Posted 27/12/2025 at 10:26:20

I think that there is a certain level of corruption Brendan, and this is probably why I’ve become very disillusioned with the sport at the very highest level, mate.

I think I watch around a very conservative 5% of what I was prepared to watch ten years ago, and when I think back to the Real Madrid v Athletic Madrid, champions league game that went to penalties last season, (I think) then nothing or nobody would be able to convince me that Atletico Madrid, weren’t robbed that night.

I don’t believe there was conclusive evidence of a double touch, but the goal was disallowed, Real Madrid prospered, and the rules were changed not long after.