Wednesday, 20th November, 2013
West Bromwich Albion have received an official apology from the head of the referees' organisation in England for a controversial penalty given against them.
Baggies manager Steve Clarke today revealed he had a phone call from Mike Riley, the chief of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).
Chelsea were awarded a stoppage-time penalty at Stamford Bridge, which denied an angry West Brom a famous win.
Chelsea's Ramires went down softly after a challenge from Steven Reid, deemed a penalty offence by referee Andre Marriner.
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West Brom have had previous incidents of wrong penalties against them, and Clarke today told the club website: "We’ve had a phone call from Mike Riley to apologise.
"It doesn’t get us any more points but it’s nice of Mike to phone. If he’s apologising, he obviously feels it was the wrong decision. We have to put it behind us now and move forward."
The Baggies are also understood to have written to the PGMOL with a notion of introducing technology to help referees more and Clarke has backed that.
He added: "The purpose of the letter is to try and provoke discussion.
"If there is technology that can be used to help referees make difficult decisions, which is what they have to do, then let’s look at it and see what we can come up with.
"If we can improve it, good, if we can’t improve it then we’ll stick with what we’ve got. But let’s talk about it."
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