For too long the refereeing fraternity has rivalled the Freemasons in their levels of secrecy and for that reason, this sudden shift towards transparency from Howard Webb is worthy of applause.
The referees’ chief broke his silence on the Luis Diaz debacle on Tuesday night and used audio clips – namely of Manchester United’s disallowed goal at home to Brentford for an offside by Anthony Martial on Saturday – to illustrate the changes in VAR communication that have been implemented since Liverpool were robbed of that opener at Tottenham.
Other revelations covered in Match Officials Mic’d Up programme included: why Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic should have been red carded against Arsenal for a ‘poor tackle’ on Declan Rice; why Tom Lockyer’s disallowed goal for Luton against Tottenham for a push by Elijah Adebayo on Cristian Romero was properly handled; why Malo Gusto’s straight red for Chelsea against Aston Villa was dangerous enough for a dismissal; why the penalty awarded against Wolves at Luton for Joao Gomes’ handball was correct as the deflection was irrelevant.