Cooper Criticizes Referee Madley Following Penalty Incidents

Leicester City manager Steve Cooper expressed strong criticism of referee Andrew Madley after his team’s 2-1 defeat against Chelsea. Cooper believed his side should have been awarded a penalty late in the game, with the score at 2-0, when Levi Colwill appeared to foul Stephy Mavididi, but the decision was not given. Conversely, a penalty was awarded to Leicester by the video assistant referee (VAR) during injury time after Romeo Lavia challenged Bobby de Cordova-Reid. Madley initially did not award this penalty, believing the Leicester player was offside, but VAR subsequently determined the player was onside. Speaking to BBC Sport, Cooper stated, “He gave offside for the second one and he was about half a yard on.” He further commented, “We’ve had a lot of bad luck with this referee this year. It’s our third or fourth game with him and it’s not been the best of times. It continued today. “The last thing [referees’ body] PGMOL needed was that performance. He’s got some big decisions massively wrong and in general a couple of advantages he blew up. “I don’t know if he lost concentration or composure but it’s not what the referees needed in the first game live on TV [after the international break]. “It’s a pity. It’s going to be all the talking points. I’m disappointed it’s us on the wrong end of it.” Cooper added later, “Maybe officially we need to speak to whoever we’ve got to speak to.” Earlier on Saturday, the Premier League announced that the on-field accuracy of decisions has improved from 82% after 11 games last season to 89% this campaign. A Key Match Incident Panel determined that there were only three VAR errors during that period, a reduction from 16 errors last season. The panel also noted that the average VAR delay in matches has decreased from 64 seconds to 36 seconds.