Nigel Pearson won't face any retrospective action from the FA following his comments made regarding the standard of officials in the wake of the victory over Rotherham United on Saturday.
The Bristol City manager was strong in his opinion regarding the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) declaring their lack of accountability, confusion, and mixed messages were "very irritating, inconsistent, not good enough and ruining the game.”
Pearson also questioned the levels of leadership following Howard Webb's promotion to the Chief Refereeing Officer in November, adding: "The leadership within their group is... wow. Everybody thought Howard Webb would come in and have a positive impact but even in the Premier League, it’s getting things wrong even with VAR.
"They clearly are in turmoil, not only are the officials unclear as to how to officiate games but then the process of how they go through decisions that have either been complained about or people who understand football, like managers and coaches, look at it and I’m not sure they know what they’re doing, to be honest with you."
Rotherham were awarded a highly contentious penalty in the second half, in which Pearson received a yellow card for his reaction to referee Josh Smith's decision in the dugout. On Tuesday, former Premier League referee Chris Foy agreed with the City manager and confirmed the visitors were incorrectly awarded the spot-kick.
Pearson has been vocal in his criticism in the past on officials, happy to shine a light on the deficiencies while running the risk of retrospective action. In August, following a game against Luton, he threatened to quit football over the standard of refereeing.
More recently, he joked that City could plaster the walls with the excuses and "poor reports" they get back from MOAS (Match Official Administration System) following the draw at Huddersfield when Matty James picked up an injury under the strong challenge of Matty Pearson. He also contacted EFL referees’ chief Kevin Friend over the lack of penalties which stretched to 469 days before their spot-kick against Sunderland in February.
Managers are permitted to criticise referees but FA Rule E3.1 states that, "A participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game and not act in any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute or use anyone, or a combination of violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting words or behaviour."
Last season, Pearson was fined £5,000 by the FA for comments aimed at referee Andy Davies after a loss against QPR. He labelled Davies' performance as "park standard".
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