Michael Oliver was wrong not to show Mateo Kovacic a red card, admits referee Howard Webb

Michael Oliver should have shown Mateo Kovacic a second yellow card for that challenge on Declan Rice, according to Howard Webb. Photo: Getty Images/Ryan Pearce

Howard Webb admitted Michael Oliver was wrong for not sending off Mateo Kovacic during Manchester City's Premier League defeat to Arsenal.

Webb, The head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited also broke his silence on the Liverpool offside goal fiasco against Tottenham, but did not apologize.

Oliver should have shown City midfielder Kovacic a second yellow card for his tackle on Declan Rice on Sunday, Webb said. Webb said the referee would not have been wrong to have issued a straight red card to the same player for an earlier tackle on Martin Odegaard.

Webb analyzed the controversy on Tuesday night's edition of Match Officials Mic'd Up in Tuesday amid growing calls for him to prevent Premier League referees from moonlighting in the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.

Analyzing Kovacic's tackle on Odegaard, Webb said. The video assistant referee would not have intervened if Oliver had been waving a red card.

“It's clearly a bad tackle and I'm quite sure that if Michael Oliver had given a red card that day it would have been a 'Check' completed,” Webb said.

He added: “When he thinks about it, he will realize that the second one should have been a yellow card too, which would have seen Kovacic sent off for two yellow cards because he would have benefited from that particular decision here.” which was borderline, the first.»

Kovacic could also have been shown a red card for that foul on Martin Odegaard, Webb said. Photo: Reuters/David Klein

Oliver's refusal to show Kovacic a second yellow card came days after he took charge of the match between Sharjah and Al Ain in the UAE, a move that had already caused concern given the country's ties to City.< /p>

Any suggestion of conscious bias in Oliver's performance on Sunday would be completely unfounded, but the fact that it could even lead to the perception of a potential conflict of interest has prompted calls from fans for chief referee Webb to intervene.

Officials are already banned from participating in matches of the clubs they support or those teams' main rivals, and fan groups want a similar principle to be applied to paid work other than their day job.

A spokesman for the Arsenal Supporters' Trust said: «Football relies on fans' confidence in the integrity of game decisions. So when an inevitable perception problem arises, as in this case, it is important to address it.»

Oliver's presence in the UAE became public knowledge late last month when Wars was revealed to be behind Liverpool's offside fiasco. , Darren England and Dan Cook were also part of the team that went there.

England and Cook's involvement in Liverpool's game against Tottenham Hotspur, and Oliver's involvement as fourth official, came just a day after they landed in the UK after an eight-hour flight, raising questions about their workload.

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Association, said: «We don't want referees to get tired when they're officiating games, and we don't want to create a sense of possible bias.»

The city's main connection with the UAE is well known: its owner, Sheikh Mansour, is the country's vice president and deputy prime minister.

What is less known is that the UAE Professional League's main sponsor is the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), whose board of directors includes city chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and that the UAE Football Association has held discussions with City Football Group chief executive Ferran Soriano about «the framework joint cooperation.»

Newcastle, meanwhile, is majority owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which this summer took control of four Saudi Premier League founding clubs, including Cristiano's Al-Nasr. Ronaldo.

Webb did not comment on the situation. worked part-time on Tuesday but did review the Diaz incident in which he accused England of «trying to rush» the offside call.

He made no public apology for the glaring gaffe but insisted that » no one is more disappointed than the referees themselves.»

Tuesday's program also featured audio of the weekend's games, showing the lengths to which PGMOL went to avoid a repeat.