Former FIFA and Premier League referee Keith Hackett has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur should have been handed a penalty against Watford on Saturday for a foul on Eric Dier.
Just before the half-time interval, Dier was seemingly brought down in the box when Son Heung-min floated in a free-kick.
Replays showed that Hornets midfielder Juraj Kucka had his hands all over the Spurs defender to stop him from being able to attack the cross.
Despite Dier’s protestations, referee Rob Jones stuck with his decision and there seemed to be no intervention from VAR.
Thankfully for Spurs, the decision did not prove costly as they were able to find a stoppage-time winner through Davison Sanchez.
However, Hackett is convinced Spurs should have been handed a penalty when Dier was brought down by Kucka. He insisted that Jones was not in a good position to see the incident and accused the Premier League of a lack of consistency in their decisions.
Hackett told Football Insider: “Just before half-time Dier was hauled down inside the penalty area and nothing was given.
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“I thought that should have been a penalty kick. This is the inconsistency in match officials. He’s hauled to the ground, he’s held.
“For me, that’s an easy penalty kick decision. Robert Jones the referee was not in a good position to judge that. There’s no question that should have been a penalty.”
Spurs Web Opinion
There is no doubt that it would have been given as a penalty had VAR asked Jones to re-watch the incident on the monitor. However, I do have sympathy for the officials when it comes to ruling on pushing and shoving in the box.
Every team does it and it is usually not black and white regarding what constitutes a foul and what does not. The problem once again is due to the lack of consistency as we have seen referees blow for a foul in the box for seemingly smaller offences.
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