West Ham United manager David Moyes finds it laughable the club were charged by the FA following their 1-1 draw with Southampton.
The Hammers received an FA charge on Thursday afternoon over rule E20.1 for failing to ensure control of their players against the Saints in the 20th minute of the game, right after Romain Perraud’s opening goal.
The goal itself was full of controversy. First, Kyle Walker-Peters’ long throw-in saw him stand well over the line, but had his heel on it, with many people of the understanding that both feet should be behind the line. Then referee Peter Bankes blocked off Jarrod Bowen as he attempted to tackle Perraud, who intercepted the ball and scored seconds later.
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Asked about the charge, which West Ham have until Monday to respond to, Moyes admits he could “laugh” at the FA's decision.
“That makes me laugh really when I think about it,” said Moyes. "I think the real reason is the confusion about it.
“The first part really is I don’t think everybody is quite aware of the rule that you can now put a foot over the line and it’s okay to put your foot over the line on a throw-in. I actually think that the reason why is the general public, you’ve seen the reaction from the supporters who were in line with it. I think it’s very badly put out by the people who should put it out.
“Then, the next part is the referee gets in the way of Jarrod Bowen, which the players find not right. The referee does it without any sort of compassion in any way to see the player couldn’t get to the ball and he impacted on it.
“The players put themselves in a position where they were all querying the two decisions because they didn’t know the one about the foot over the line. The referee didn’t get out of the way and he should have gotten out of the way, that’s what it was and he didn’t do it. Unfortunately for the referee, it led directly to a goal, and unfortunately for us, it did as well because he was in the wrong position.”
The decision proved costly and had the goal been ruled out by VAR, West Ham would have recorded an away win for just the second time in the Premier League this season.
Asked if he felt that the club would appeal the charge against them, Moyes said he felt players needed better education about the change in the laws regarding throw-ins.
“I just see it as players being needed to know exactly what is expected,” added Moyes. “The referee was in the wrong position, so that was probably the first one and the second was to say he was putting the foot over the line as well.”
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