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On Sunday, May 25, Aston Villa suffered a tough 2-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United on the final day of the Premier League season at Old Trafford, which extinguished their hope of making it through to the UEFA Champions League (UCL). During this high stakes match, referee Thomas Bramall made a “big mistake” according to Aston Villa, which proved to be quite costly to them, and for that reason, they made an official complaint to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) about it.
The contentious moment in the match happened in the second half when Aston Villa were down to 10 men with their goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez already sent off due to fouling goalbound Rasmus Hojlund outside the box. Morgan Rogers had put the ball in the back of the net after nudging the ball away from Manchester United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, but the referee blew for a foul thinking that he had both his hands on the ball.
On the television replays, it was clearly visible that the Manchester United goalkeeper didn’t have complete control on the ball, but the video assistant referee (VAR) couldn’t intervene to change the decision because of the referee’s whistle. After that, Amad Diallo scored from a header before Christian Eriksen put away a penalty in his final appearance for Manchester United, to secure a convincing win for them.
The decision to disallow Morgan Rogers' goal was a major contributing factor to not qualifying for UCL: Aston Villa
In the post-match press conference, Aston Villa’s Director of Football Operations Damian Vidagany said, as per BBC Sport, “We are going to send a complaint. The complaint is not about the decision, it is about the selection of the referee - one of the most inexperienced referees in the Premier League. It's not about the decision, clearly it was a mistake. The complaint is about the referee. The problem is why the international referees were not here today.”
Shortly after, Aston Villa released a statement on the matter, “Of the 10 referees to officiate across the Premier League today, Mr Bramall was the second least experienced. The decision to disallow Morgan Rogers' goal, which would have given the club a 1-0 lead with 17 minutes remaining in the match, was a major contributing factor to the club not qualifying for the Champions League.”
“We acknowledge the outcome will not change, but we believe it is important to address the selection methodology to ensure high-stakes matches are treated as such with regard to officiating and to ensure the implemented VAR technology is allowed to be effective,” they added.
