Aston Villa submitted a complaint to the English referees' association.

2025-05-26 09:17 © Imago-images

On Sunday, Aston Villa lost 0:2 to Manchester United in the last English Premier League match, and such a result closed the team's path to next season's UEFA Champions League.

However, everything in this match could have turned out differently, as in the 74th minute Morgan Rogers sent the ball into the "Red Devils" goal, but the referee called a foul against the goalkeeper.

Looking at the replay, there are many suspicions about whether the foul actually occurred. Interestingly, in that situation, the referee could not be saved by VAR, as the referee recorded the foul before the ball entered the goal, even though referees are given recommendations in such moments to wait for the end of the attack and only then make a decision.

Due to this situation and the decision to assign a relatively inexperienced referee to the match, Aston Villa officially appealed to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) after the match.

"These matches were of great importance, so our club is convinced that they should have been officiated by a more experienced referee. Of the ten matches that took place on Sunday, our match referee had the second least experience."

The decision not to count Morgan Rogers' goal was pivotal, blocking our path to next season's Champions League,” the Aston Villa club statement said.

"According to current officiating standards, the decision to once again blow for a foul was incorrect. We have VAR to make the right decisions in such situations; however, in this case, there simply was no opportunity to do so.

We understand that this appeal will not change our situation, but we want it to be taken into account in the future, and experienced referees should be assigned to key matches,” the club's statement concludes.