Everton manager Frank Lampard and chairman Bill Kenwright have both received personal telephone calls from PGMOL managing director Mike Riley following the VAR decision not to award them a penalty against Manchester City.
Everton looked like they’d get the chance to score what would have been a deserved equaliser when Manchester City player Rodri handled the ball in his own area.
The Spaniard appeared to clearly control the ball with his arm – below the so-called ‘t-shirt’ line which the Premier League uses for supposed clarity for handball decisions.
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But the incident was not spotted by referee Paul Tierney.
The decision went to VAR but back at Stockley Park, Chris Kavanagh decided not to award a penalty.
And he did not even deem it worthy of a second look by Tierney on the pitchside monitor available to view replays.
Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale made a formal complaint to both Richard Masters at the Premier League and Chief Football Officer Tony Scholes on Monday morning.
The ECHO understands both Lampard and Mr Kenwright received calls later in the day from Riley, the chief of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (a group formed to improve refereeing standards), to apologise over the incident after Professor Barrett-Baxendale had issued a strongly-worded message, expressing grave concerns at the quality of officiating in Everton matches recently.
