Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola says that the referee lost control of the game, with the Cherries losing three players for their next match to suspension in a 3-2 loss at Sunderland.
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A referee coach has denied “manhandling” Women’s Super League referee Lisa Benn after she told an employment tribunal that he “forcefully pushed” her during a match.
Benn, 34, claims she was pushed and threatened by Steve Child during a tournament organised by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to train staff on video assistant referees (VAR) in March 2023.
English football’s refereeing body investigated the complaint but found Child’s behaviour did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action.
In his tribunal witness statement, quoted to the panel on Wednesday, Child said “100% I did not grab” her, it was a “guiding arm if anything” but “I don’t recall putting any physical contact on her”.
“I lightly put an arm across her back in a sense of ‘let’s go’,” the former Premier League assistant referee added.
Child refuted Benn’s accusation that his treatment of her was “because she is a woman”.
Kick-off had been delayed by an earlier injury and a south London employment tribunal heard Child was trying to speed up the start of play.
He denied grabbing Benn a second time and saying “your card has been marked” after a mass brawl broke out at the end of the fractious youth game.
Carla Fischer, for Benn, said: “A six-foot man who is stressed, who has been told by the claimant to chill, physically moving a five-foot woman on to a pitch.”
She added: “There is absolutely no way this contact could be anything other than grabbing and manhandling, is there?”
Child replied: “That’s not correct.”
He also denied intimidating Benn in the hotel reception at a training camp they both attended on 19 August, 2023, saying: “I think that might be a confusion on Lisa’s part.”
Benn claims she unfairly lost her position as a Fifa international referee because she complained about his behaviour to PGMOL.
She alleged she had been told by the organisation’s chief refereeing officer, Howard Webb, and his wife Bibi Steinhaus-Webb – then the head of women’s referees – she would not be punished for coming forward.
“There is a fear in the women’s group to raise grievances, to raise concerns, because of the fear of consequences,” Benn told the hearing on Tuesday.
The tribunal continues.
The loss in the penultimate fixture in the campaign does still damage their hopes of making it to North America, however, as they will enter those play-offs in the lowest group of seeds.
Slovakia originally thought they had taken the lead in the 56th minute when Lukas Haraslin’s free-kick flew past Bailey Peacock-Farrell, but it was adjudged that Milan Skriniar had obstructed the view of the Northern Ireland goalkeeper.
Just eight minutes later, they had another strike disallowed by VAR after David Strelec was penalised for handling the ball when finishing from another Haraslin set-piece.
O’Neill felt that the decisions to rule out the previous efforts played into allowing the late winner.
“It was a clear push on Daniel Ballard at the corner, two hands in his back,” said O’Neill.
“The other goals that were disallowed should have been disallowed. The first one was offside, the lines show that clearly, and the second one was handball.
“You have to look at each incident on its own merit, you can’t go cumulative and referee the last incident differently to how you refereed the other two incidents.”
Following the winning goal, Ballard was sent off for a second yellow card offence and midfielder George Saville was booked with both players now ruled out of Monday night’s game with Luxembourg through suspension.
On Ballard’s second yellow, O’Neill said: “The Slovakian dug-out that caused that as much as anything.”
“The [second] yellow card for Daniel is a joke,” he continued.
“If you look at it back, it is poor. He is a top referee, he has refereed the Champions League final, he should have disallowed the goal.”
The victory, which keeps alive Slovakia’s hopes of qualifying automatically for next summer’s tournament, sparked huge celebrations from the hosts with O’Neill describing their reaction as “disappointing”.
“Everything was on the line for Slovakia. You could tell that by the way their technical area behaved towards the end of the game, which was disappointing.
“Disappointing for their coach not to shake my hand.
“Ultimately, we congratulate Slovakia because they can go to Germany and try to win the group.”