Everton manager David Moyes has voiced significant frustration over what he perceives as a lack of consistency and transparency from match officials this season. His comments follow a weekend where his team was denied a penalty in a home defeat, while a strikingly similar incident in another match resulted in a spot-kick.
The immediate catalyst was a penalty awarded to Fulham against Nottingham Forest on Monday night, given for minimal contact in the box. Moyes contrasted this with an incident two days earlier, where Everton’s Thierno Barry was challenged by Arsenal’s William Saliba under comparable circumstances, with no foul given. For the Everton boss, the discrepancy is glaring and problematic.
“Seeing that decision given last night, when ours wasn’t, was hard to take,” Moyes stated. “It creates a feeling that some clubs benefit from these tight calls, while others consistently miss out. We find ourselves in the latter category too often.”
Moyes suggested this is part of a broader pattern, referencing another contested decision from earlier in the campaign. He expressed a deeper concern that the officiating body seems unwilling to engage in meaningful dialogue with managers to clarify such rulings.
“It’s not easy to get explanations,” he noted. “There’s a reluctance to have the conversation, perhaps because justifying some of these decisions has become very difficult.”
The manager’s critique extended beyond decisions affecting his own side. He highlighted a separate incident from the Arsenal match, where a handball penalty was only awarded after a lengthy VAR review, questioning why the on-field officials failed to make the initial call.
“The assistant referee was in a perfect position to see it. Why did we need to wait for VAR? The core issue is consistency. If a certain contact is a penalty in one game, it must be the same in another. I don’t advocate for soft penalties, but I do demand uniformity in how the rules are applied across the board.”