Peter Walton confirms your suspicions:
Directive for less fussy refereeing explains Ibrahima Konaté decision
Referee Simon Hooper was right not to send off the Liverpool defender, despite protests from Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Vítor Pereira
Peter Walton
, former Premier League referee
Sunday February 16 2025, 8.00pm, The Times
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At the start of this season, Premier League referees were encouraged to raise the threshold for physical contact that should be considered a foul. It was only a subtle change, but it was intended to reflect the fact that English football is known all over the world for allowing more intense physical contests.
The feeling was that in recent seasons we’d become more continental in the way we refereed matches, and were losing a bit of what made our game special. It also meant matches were being broken up too easily, and players were encouraged to feign or exaggerate contact to win fouls. The benefit of raising the threshold is that matches flow better without interruption, and the crowd become more engaged with the drama of the game, and less agitated by over-fussy officiating and long VAR delays.
That directive was given to referees last summer, but it was reinforced at the start of January, and I have noticed in recent weeks a shift in the way matches are refereed. More contact is being allowed, and it is really helping the spectacle. In theory, the threshold for showing yellow cards should not have changed but because stronger challenges are being allowed in general, there has been a knock-on effect on the number of cards.
Hooper showed Konaté a yellow card in the first half but opted against a second booking for the Liverpool defender before the break despite his robust challenge on Cunha
PHIL NOBLE/REUTERS
Between the start of the season and the end of 2024, there were 4.7 yellow cards per game; this calendar year, that average has dropped to 3.5. There were no yellow cards at all in the Fulham-Nottingham Forest game on Saturday.
I wonder if this shift partly explains why Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konaté was not shown a second yellow card — and therefore a red card — for his shoulder barge on Matheus Cunha of Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield on Sunday. It was clearly a foul, and of course some referees may have given a yellow card for it, but in this new climate I can see why Simon Hooper decided not to.
The failure to send off Konaté may have upset some fans — especially those who follow Liverpool’s title rivals — but I suspect if you asked those same fans if in principle they are in favour of English football being a more physical, undulating spectacle with fewer stoppages, they would say they are.
Pereira fumes as Slot admits: ‘I had to take Konaté off’
Vitor Pereira, the Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach, took aim at the referee Simon Hooper and claimed he had erred by not sending off Ibrahima Konaté in the opening half of his side’s 2-1 defeat by Liverpool (Paul Joyce writes).
Four days after the Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, had been incensed by the standard of refereeing in the Merseyside derby, Pereira said the Premier League leaders should have been reduced to ten men when Konaté barged into Matheus Cunha.
Pereira was booked for his protests during the match
RYAN BROWNE/REX
The France centre back had already been booked but Hooper awarded only a free kick after the flashpoint, which came with Liverpool leading 2-0 late in the first half.
“I am not the referee but, yes, for me,” Pereira said when asked if Konaté should have seen red. “What I say now will not change anything but in my opinion the second yellow card should be shown.”
Pereira, who had already been shown a yellow card at that point after complaining about a number of decisions, added: “I don’t know why I was booked, maybe because I am emotional when I am competing.
“I am not watching a movie on the sofa. I am there to compete, we must understand the emotional side. I was trying to accept a lot of decisions today.”
Konaté did not reappear for the second half and Slot, who was charged with improper conduct by the FA after his red card in last week’s draw with Everton, admitted he had substituted the defender to avoid running the risk of another booking.
“Yes, I took him off because of that,” Slot said. “I saw him getting his first yellow — that for me was a soft yellow. If he had gotten his second one for a shoulder push, that would have again been a soft yellow so he would have been sent off for two soft yellows.
“I think the referee felt the same, that’s why he didn’t [book him again]. But I’ve watched football so many times in my life and I know that a player, and the referee, is then under pressure.
“For Ibou, it is so difficult to play 45 minutes of football against a strong Wolves team so I had to take him off because you can’t play football knowing in your head that you can’t make a foul against such good players as Wolves have.”
