Phil Neville goes into latest refereeing tirade after Inter Miami loss to Red Bulls: "We were cheated"
The Inter Miami coach sounded off on MLS officiating for the second straight week, saying an investigation needs to be opened into how video review is used
Phil Neville may have pulled no punches when talking about his thoughts towards MLS officiating last week. This time, however, he threw a haymaker.
Inter Miami suffered a fifth consecutive defeat on Saturday night by losing 1-0 away to the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. The defeat was the latest blow to the South Florida side’s diminishing playoff chances, and led Neville to express his frustration at the league’s refereeing for the second straight week.
“I am just going to go full barrel,” said Neville post-game. “We were told this week that the Atlanta penalty should not have happened, so we were cheated in Atlanta. We then got told we should have had two penalties plus the goal in Portland, so we got cheated in Portland. We have (also) been cheated tonight.
“I do not want to sound like a broken record, but ultimately something is fundamentally wrong with how referees are treating Inter Miami.”
Whereas after last week’s 1-0 road loss to the Portland Timbers Neville expressed his dismay with a goal that was negated by a foul call, this time his beef stemmed from an offside flag that was raised in the 61st mintue. Gonzalo Higuain hit a deflected ball that went into the back of the net after racing onto a pass in behind the defense, but the would-be equalizer was eventually disallowed by head referee Tori Penso.
Discussions between the match officials on and off the field eventually led Inter Miami to believe that the goal had been awarded, but the final call was a free kick for the Red Bulls.
“Ultimately we cannot accept this anymore,” said Neville. “There needs to be a massive investigation about some of the decisions that get given against Inter Miami Football Club because ultimately we are in a professional league.”
Neville later clarified his comments by saying he was not angry with Penso, whom he thought officiated a “really good game.” The manager instead stated he was upset about the persisting tough calls that have not gone in his team’s favor this year, and the manner in which video review has been used on a number of them.
He even said Inter Miami had “images” to “prove” Higuain was onside, though the angles on the television broadcast did not seem to show that.
“That is where we feel cheated,” said Neville. “We realize in a season you are going to get bad decisions. You realize in games you are going to get bad decisions, but ultimately with VAR you want to mitigate the human errors that are made on the field.
“I will say it again: The referee tonight, I thought she was outstanding, but ultimately we have been let down by a review system that did not make the right decision.”
Neville added that he was hoping not to come off as a poor loser with his remarks, which he also did not want to be interpreted as coming from someone who has no respect for MLS. He insisted he does, but stated he wants to see the league’s video review system improved since he has received multiple emails this year that he says have owned up to errors after the fact.
“I have got a dressing room there that is asking real, real questions about the integrity of this league in terms of the decisions that we keep getting,” said Neville. “Yes, there are probably many arguments. Yes, I have got to question was VAR working. I have seen the incident, it was onside.”
“… I have got to now start questioning because we have had our integrity questioned this year. We have had stones thrown at us and we have had to take it. We have had to take a lot of absolute sh-t this season from a lot of people and we have had to accept it because when you do wrong you have to accept that criticism and you get on with it. … I cannot accept this.”
I know, remember that one game where there was a questionable penalty call against, but then the goalkeeper saved it, only to be overturned by VAR, not once, but twice, until the other team finally scored. Oh wait, that was NYRB . Only reasonable outcome here is a permanent ban of Higuain for threatening the ref after the final whistle. Not once, but twice. Even after he had left the field he came back to threaten them. Get that despicable person out and let him retire in shame.