Mark Ashton has revealed referees chief Howard Webb is set to visit Portman Road this week as the Blues chairman and CEO looks for answers regarding the various refereeing and VAR decisions which have gone against the Blues since the start of the season and in particularly over the last three weekends.

During the Manchester City game on the campaign’s second weekend, the Premier League champions were awarded a penalty after referee Sam Allison had reviewed footage following a VAR review, but a similar incident at the other end wasn’t even looked at.

Against Everton a fortnight ago, a penalty was awarded when Jack Clarke was tripped before referee Michael Oliver overturned the decision after VAR had intervened.

At Brentford, referee Lewis Smith initially gave a free-kick to the Bees after Harry Clarke had fouled Keane Lewis-Potter but again VAR looked at the incident and deemed that the infringement had taken place inside the box and the West Londoners were awarded a penalty.

It was Saturday’s game against Leicester which triggered Ashton to make a call to Webb, the chief refereeing officer for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), Town having been denied what looked a stonewall penalty at 1-0 by referee Tim Robinson, who appeared to be in a position from where he couldn’t clearly see the incident.

According to manager Kieran McKenna, the claim was looked at by VAR but not overturned. The situation was compounded by Kalvin Phillips being shown a very harsh second yellow card moments later.

In the days since, various ex-players and former officials have pontificated on the penalty decision.

“I get frustrated and I get angry at things when they don’t go our way, but I thought Saturday was a real injustice,” Ashton told BBC Radio Suffolk’s The Blue Hour.

“And those who know me know I care passionately about this football club and I will give my last breath defending this football club. And I made that very, very clear to Howard Webb.

“I thought long and hard today about what I should and shouldn’t say, knowing I was coming on tonight, this has been planned for along time, so there’s no knee-jerk reaction.

“I live in a world where if I say too much I’ll be put on a charge, so what I’m going to say to you know is putting me on that line.

“But I’ve tried to be honest and open with this fanbase since the day I joined, so I’ll give the train of events as they unfolded on Saturday.

“I actually messaged Howard when we were 1-0 up because I had a sense of the way this was going to go. I’ve been in this game a long time and I could feel it.

“I messaged him simply and said, ‘Look, can we speak directly after the game?’. We spoke directly after the game and some of that conversation needs to remain private because I’ll end up being on a charge, I’ll end up being on a stadium ban, I’ll end up being fined, none of which worries.

“But the context of some of what I said to him was this. When we were promoted to the Premier League in the summer, I’d never worked with VAR ever, so it was very new to me.

“And the Premier League presented to me why we should support retaining VAR, Wolverhampton Wanderers had made a petition for it to be removed.

“We listened to Wolves and we listened to some other clubs and we listened primarily to the Premier League and on the basis of what I was told, we supported the Premier League’s decision.

“And a key part of that was how high the bar was going to be set for decisions to be overturned and overruled, and at what point VAR got involved in the game.

“If I was asked to make that vote again tomorrow, I can’t look you in the eye say I’d vote the same way because I am still angry, I’m still frustrated.

“I think what I’ve seen thus far with VAR, as someone who has spent a long time in the Championship, who loves and cares passionately about this game, from an entertainment perspective, I believe the games are worse off with VAR from what I’ve seen in my own personal view.

“All I ask for with refereeing and VAR is consistency and we have not seen consistency. I do not personally believe and my colleagues don’t personally believe we have seen consistency over the games.

“You go back to Man City, penalty at one end, not at the other end and I could go on and on about specific instances, and they’re not [consistent].

“All I look for is consistency and right now, I’m confused. I think as a coaching staff we’re probably confused.

“The culmination of that interesting, shall we say, conversation with Howard on Saturday night is that we will meet this week at Portman Road to discuss it because we need answers, we need to understand.

“I can’t understand some of the decisions that were made, the refereeing decisions and I struggle to under stand why we weren’t awarded a penalty.

“I’ve seen on international broadcasters today, former referees giving their opinion that it’s not a penalty. You cannot be serious. Come on, don’t just back your former colleagues. It’s a stonewall penalty.

“Then why isn’t it VARed, why isn’t it checked? I don’t know and I need to have answers. I need to have answers for my manager, I need to have answers for my coaching staff, I need answers for my key stakeholders and more importantly I need to have answers for this fanbase.

“But I go back to the beginning, this fanbase needs to understand I will give my last breath fighting for this football club and I didn’t enjoy that Saturday, I felt there was an injustice to everyone in this town and this county, and I want some answers.”

Meanwhile, Ashton reiterated that the Cobbold Stand rebuild is a long-term aim and revealed that building behind the West Stand is an option under consideration in order to prevent the club losing significant capacity when the 53-year-old Cobbold is knocked down as the club ultimately aims towards a 40,000-seater stadium.

The Blues CEO also said changing the manager won’t enter his head, that McKenna is going nowhere this season whatever happens with the Blues currently in the relegation zone.

Photo: TownTV

ElephantintheRoom added 06:16 - Nov 5 Shameful to see the franchise reduced to bleating about refereeing decisions. Subjective decisions cannot be ‘consistent ´. To whinge about them is both embarrassing and counterproductive. You don’t hear referees whining about Ashton’s dubious transfers, or McKenna’s suicidal approach to defending, nor professional footballers missing sitters or getting themselves sent off.

-19

ElephantintheRoom added 06:16 - Nov 5 Shameful to see the franchise reduced to bleating about refereeing decisions. Subjective decisions cannot be ‘consistent ´. To whinge about them is both embarrassing and counterproductive. You don’t hear referees whining about Ashton’s dubious transfers, or McKenna’s suicidal approach to defending, nor professional footballers missing sitters or getting themselves sent off.

-17

ElephantintheRoom added 06:16 - Nov 5 Shameful to see the franchise reduced to bleating about refereeing decisions. Subjective decisions cannot be ‘consistent ´. To whinge about them is both embarrassing and counterproductive. You don’t hear referees whining about Ashton’s dubious transfers, or McKenna’s suicidal approach to defending, nor professional footballers missing sitters or getting themselves sent off.

-16

RIPbobby added 06:28 - Nov 5 What will happen is Webb will offer guarantees and Ashton will monitor the situation for the rest of the season. Nothing can be achieved from this.
1

bobble added 07:42 - Nov 5 The premier league was created to sell big club football and make lots of money american style for a few,.... the small clubs like us are just cannon fodder for the special elites clubs...the football league is a far superior product with more fairness and equality than the premier league nonsense,, trouble is the premier league has contaminated the football league with its unfair parachute payments ...we should have let the big 6 clubs leave the football league and play with other big euro teams in their elitist euro bubble league, it would have been better for football and footballers...

12

bobble added 07:46 - Nov 5 Rugby union/cricket var is very slow but it seems to get the decision correct 99% of the time, why cant the premier league ? Is there another reason ?
6

BlueySwede added 08:28 - Nov 5 I will admit I sometimes have my blue tinted glasses on, but how the challenge on Chaplin is not deemed a penalty I will never understand.
8

RegencyBlue added 08:51 - Nov 5 And it won’t make any difference at all. Referees are like doctors, however incompetent one of them is the others will always back them up! It wasn’t just the referee Saturday, the assistant referee had a perfect view and absolutely nothing from him either. As for VAR, the technology is fine, it’s the fact decisions are still being made by members of the referees club who don’t want to make their mates on the pitch look anymore incompetent than they are doing themselves.

8

Linkboy13 added 09:35 - Nov 5 The Sky league as I call it has been corrupt for years. I can remember years ago watching WBA struggling against relegation and getting absolutely nothing from referees and commenting with my late Dad that something isn't right here referees are obviously instructed not to give any thing to smaller clubs that are struggling if they can help it. It's been going on to long to be a coincidence. I for one can't stand the Premier Sky league and never watch it on TV and can't wait to get back to the championship and see entertaining football again.

8

Murphys_Law added 09:36 - Nov 5 I’d love to see the video presentation that the club put together to show Howard Webb in the meeting. It’ll be such long one with all those crap decisions to review they’ll need popcorn! Go MA!
3

mathiemagic added 09:38 - Nov 5 I have said it before and the immediate answer to VAR issues is that if after 60 seconds a clear and obvious error has not been spotted then you have to go with the onfield decision. Refs are human and will make mistakes from time to time but VAR is clearly not the answer if fellow professionals refs cannot, with all those screens and angles, clearly see Chaplin was barged over. I have no doubt a similar challenge will be made by a Town player in the coming weeks and a pen will be given. Goal line technology is excellent and is proven to be correct every single time. Until we have some form of technology that does not involve any human input then lets park it and go back to decisions evening themselves out over the course of a season. Fans preferred it that way and they pay the entrance fee after all.

2

Lightningboy added 10:12 - Nov 5 I think we all need to get shot of VAR - Not that clown Howard Webb trying to justify keeping it because it's been expensive to set up and keeps him and his pals in a job. GET RID. #varstinks #variscorrupt
6

Lightningboy added 10:23 - Nov 5 ...and football managed pretty well for about 150 years before VAR. Just because technology is available doesn't mean it has to be used. The game the world over needs to go back to basics..a single referee and 2 "linesmen". VAR has wrecked watching football over the last few seasons for every fan at every club. #varstinks #variscorript
7

BlueSkies added 10:34 - Nov 5 Ad there you have it, in that Sky segment towards the bottom of the article - slimy half-wit referees like Dermot Gallagher who haven't a clue about the game and are quite smug about it. I've never been one to blame the referees for everything that goes against us, but that was a penalty all day and any of the so-called big 6 would have been awarded it on the field within a nano second. Cheating sh!ts.

7

tractorboybig added 10:36 - Nov 5 whats the point????????? nothing can or will be changed
3

Cafe_Newman added 10:38 - Nov 5 With or without VAR, "bigger" clubs get the rub of the green. Bigger clubs can flout FFP rules too without significant penalty. The rules surrounding VAR usage are designed specifically to allow referees to override what technology clearly shows to be reality. The technology is not the problem. It's about money and it always will be. If it looks like a conspiracy, walks like a conspiracy and quacks like a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy. There's no conspiracy THEORY here, it's conspiracy FACT. Sadly, Mark Ashton's laudable actions will be met with carefully worded platitudes and hollow promises and the status quo will be quickly resumed because VAR is here to stay. Might is right I'm afraid and I think it's time that people woke up to the fact that corruption is far more prevalent in our lives than we wish to acknowledge.

7

blues1 added 10:39 - Nov 5 Tempzzz. What the hell are you on about? Ashton is the best thing thats happened to this club for years. Ridiculous comment.
3

Kickingblock added 10:42 - Nov 5 Predetermined Game Manipulation Outcome League
1

Cafe_Newman added 10:44 - Nov 5 @blues1 I think the "haha" at the end of Tempzzz's post tells us that he's not being entirely serious.
4

Dissboyitfc added 10:49 - Nov 5 Elephantintheroom, wanted to mark you down twice but hit the up by mistake! Even my Norwich supporting colleagues at work are showing us empathy over this, it’s wrong and I hope MA gives him both barrels! I wonder if there will come a day when the premier league gets sued over incompetence when a team gets relegated because of this sort of nonsense.
3

ITFCSG added 10:50 - Nov 5 I don’t see any use, so what if Ashton complains to Webb, the same old corrupt lot will favour Spurs this weekend as usual and all will be forgotten. Do you think for one moment the ref will treat our team equally when they face world class “superstars” like Son and Richarlison? We won’t get any points back either. The only way is for an independent body created to do oversee the PGMOL and given broad powers not only to overturn red cards, but also order matches to be replayed and results annulled. Then maybe the refs will start waking up.

4

Wark_About added 10:53 - Nov 5 VAR is contributing nothing to the game, is a detraction to the spectacle and should be scrapped. I was very disappointed that ITFC did not support Wolves in the vote
4

PhilR added 11:43 - Nov 5 Maybe some of our defending has left a bit to be desired, maybe we have missed a couple of sitters. But Ashton is right, we have consistently been on the wrong end of inexplicably bad decision making by refs + VAR this season, which has had a direct adverse effect on our points tally. It might just continue regardless, but at least if the club stands up for itself loudly there is a chance that things will improve.

2

TimmyH added 12:18 - Nov 5 Problem is money is ruling the game...we wouldn't need VAR if so much was on the line, the money won by winning the Premiership, Champions League, TV deals, Sponsorship, rich owners involved etc. etc. if we had far less of this we could rely on 3 officials on matchdays. We got by back in the day and yes they did make mistakes but is was swings and roundabouts but now we do have an envelope for corruption in making decisions when the game comes to a halt. Money is the root to all evil.

4

blues1 added 12:31 - Nov 5 Tractorboybig.,You're probably right that nothing will change, but do you really think we,should just sit back and accept it, without putting our point across?
5

Blogs 298 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls