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Leon Bailey and Morgan Gibbs-White face potential punishment for slamming referees

Leon Bailey and Morgan Gibbs-White face being handed a potential punishment for slamming referees after their matches at the weekend.

Leon Bailey hit out at Lisandro Martinez and referee Anthony Taylor after his clash with the Manchester United defender in Sunday’s Premier League game at Villa Park.

Aston Villa picked up a brilliant 3-1 win over Erik ten Hag’s side in what was Unai Emery’s first game in charge since taking over as manager replacing Steven Gerrard.

Bailey broke the deadlock, before goals from Lucas Digne and Jacob Ramsey, either side of an own goal from Ramsey, lifted Emery’s side up to 13th in the table.

A frustrating afternoon for Man Utd around the hour mark was proved more so by an altercation between Bailey and Martinez.

As the Argentinian defender tried to see the ball out of play for a United goal kick in the 64th minute, Bailey desperately tried to win the ball by pressuring Martinez.

The centre-back throws a few of elbows towards Bailey’s stomach but he escaped unpunished, yet was just a few yards away from the linesman and in the sight of the referee – and United were awarded a goal kick instead.

Bailey went online after the game to slam the officials and highlighted his shock at not winning at least a free kick following the clash.

He said: “Very disappointed in the referees today, I couldn’t breath for a second after getting elbowed twice in my rib. The linesman went on to say I shouldn’t be saying anything because I was doing just the same thing to Martinez. Sometimes I don’t understand why we got VAR. SMH.”

Bailey was taken off soon afterwards for John McGinn as Villa held out for the 3-1 victory.

Despite the altercation, it was another good afternoon for Bailey, who has been enjoying a promising campaign, scoring twice and provided one assist in his last three games, and has three goals and two assists in 11 Premier League starts.

Another referee was criticised publicly at the weekend, with Morgan Gibbs-White facing an FA charge after claiming Nottingham Forest were ‘cheated out of three points’ against Brentford.

Forest got a 96th-minute point in a game packed with drama, it began from before a ball had been kicked when Brentford’s staff were involved in an altercation with home ground staff.

It was Andre Marriner’s decision to hand the visitors a spot kick after Dean Henderson was deemed to have tripped Yoane Wissa which bore the brunt of Gibbs-White’s frustration.

‘We got cheated out of it,’ Gibbs-White told the BBC. ‘I looked at the penalty back and don’t have a clue what the referee has seen. We came in at half-time angry, but we had to use that emotion to get back into the game. We deserved three points. We got cheated out of three points. It was two errors that cost us.

‘We gave the ball away for their penalty and lost the ball again for the second goal. We battered them, really.’

Gibbs-White’s manager Steve Cooper vented out at the decision but shifted the blame from Marriner onto the VAR technology, claiming his side should have been awarded three penalties across the 90 minutes. ‘My feeling is that if that’s a penalty then there should be four in the game,’ Cooper said. ‘If he [Marriner] has to look at the screen for ours then he should for the other three.’

Emmanuel Dennis thought he should have been awarded a penalty when Mathias Jensen blocked his run, before VAR decided against awarding Forest a spot-kick when Josh Dasilva looked to shove Forest captain Ryan Yates in the box.

Then Gibbs-White felt he should’ve had a penalty in the second half when he thought he was clipped by a defender while hurdling a challenge.

‘We feel hard done by and it’s pretty plain to see,’ said Cooper. ‘The system let the referee down more than a little bit.’

Brentford manager Thomas Frank was more complimentary of Marriner’s performance, revealing that he visited him post-match to congratulate him on his ‘brilliant’ performance. ‘I said “well done”,’ Frank said. ‘It was a very difficult game to ref because there were a lot of situations where players were falling over. I think he did brilliant.’

This is what social media users had to say as Leon Bailey and Morgan Gibbs-White face a potential punishment for slamming referees…

@RedditchWolf: More players need to call out the shocking standard of officiating in the @premierleague. If Mariner and Mason didn’t cheat Forrest out of 3 points, then they must have made a clear mistake (with the aid of slo-mo replays). Week in, week out we are seeing the beautiful game ruined by poor refereeing, over reliance on VAR, and the egos and arrogance of referees. @premierleague it’s time to bin the poor officials, shelve VAR and give the fans our game back.

@WPacey_89: Will probably get fined, but fair play for stating facts. #nffc

@NFFC1975: He’s right though with what he’s said and if the FA fine him then the club needs to take it to a panel and show the footage and ask “Is this level of officiating acceptable with VAR as well?” Make a massive issue of it and take it to them not accept a fine as nothing will change

@LukeBarnes88: Agreed if you’re giving the Brentford pen how aren’t Forest getting at least two….very poor from the Ref & VAR

@tracyf1971: Agreed @Morgangibbs27

@Ad82049942: Refs and VAR are incredibly selective. Based off the Brentford (and Man City) penalties today, Forest could have had 4 but nothing was even looked at and then the officials give free kicks for absolutely nothing else here on the pitch. None of it makes any sense any more!

@Rob_Leah: He’s not wrong tho tbf, can’t say nothing about a reds performance god forbid, but everyone can skate a players performance and that’s ok dreadful officiating today and they can just get away with it

@DomBlakey: Fair play to him, he’ll get a fine but it’ll be worth it. Officials need to be accountable for terrible decisions and performances. #nffc

@lumpus1979: Not wrong at all! Ban upcoming

@GrantFellows2: Var needs regulating, supposed to be there for clear and obvious errors if they spend 5 minutes on this how can it be clear and obvious. It’s being used incorrectly and inconsistently.

@Twheatman: He’s 100% correct

@KieranD83672193: Legend. Speak out against the officials. Don’t fear consequences. Today was a JOKE. I love this man #nffc

@JamieWilliams1: 💯 shocking referee today

@funoxfordjim: Happy to have a whip round

@FM_Fizzy: Watching MOTD as a Leeds fan last night, god that was bad. I don’t usually care when it’s not my team but Jesus. That was robbery at it finest.

@Overthegiantree: Something needs to give. Officiating this season has been dreadful for many teams

@roger_roadley: 100% if you have to look at something 20 times it’s not clear or obvious so it’s not a pen wasnt a pen anyway the ball clearly hits henos thumb

@OffTrack94: YES @Morgangibbs27. Players and managers have to start holding refs accountable because none else does or has the platform to.

@forestfan1981: He’s not wrong, fair play for him coming out and saying it. Was never a penalty if theirs is then we should have had at least 2

@SheathPig: Makes me laugh how punishment exists around speaking out.. do a better job, be more transparent, get these referees on a mic to justify their decisions and you’ll gradually see a more level playing field. Refs have a difficult job but there’s no denying they’re protected..

@Manmademega: To be honest the rules need to change, you should be allowed to comment, Refs need to be held accountable!!! Not sure why they’re protected so much that you get fined for speaking your mind and telling the truth.

@JamesCapewell3: Defo red the elbow to the ribs

@afcfannation: Absolutely should have been a red card. Disgraceful

@natsiobhan_: say it louder for the people at the back!! how it wasn’t a red card baffles me

@AVFC_Aston: They can pay the officials all they want they still couldn’t get the 3 points. You’re world class

@JayVtid: You got the last laugh Leon. You were class today.

@RichieLionel81: Hard to not say VAR was brought in to help the ‘big’ teams EVEN more. Ref literally blocked an attack at one point, looked like best defensive mid they have had since keane. Absolute joke. Hey ho great goal Leon and performance UTV

@JeromeAndy4: He’ll get fined for this but who cares I’m glad Bailey spoke out against this

@VillaMatt91: Takes more than 2 elbows to keep you down! Superb performance again today Leon 🦁

@ahyanhussain25: VAR is there for a reason, Martinez didn’t get a red for violent conduct there and neither does mings for trying to pull ronaldo to the ground when both were completely unnecessary, Works both ways I’m afraid.

@originallasagna: So @Morgangibbs27 gunna get penalised for speaking out against VAR, now Bailey is speaking out too. Maybe listen to the players instead of penalising them for talking out. #var #EPL #nffc #avfc

@AVFC_JJC: Credit to Leon for being brave enough to actually point it out; Martinez should’ve had sanctions for that, not only a red card. Disgraceful refereeing again.

@cityandchips: good for him calling it out. he will get fined but i wish more players did this

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