Former referee and Sportsmail columnist Graham Poll believes refereeing is at the worst level he can remember Refereeing chiefs have hit back at criticism sparked by Sportsmail columnist Graham Poll by publishing statistics that claim standards have never been higher. Despite a number of horrendous mistakes which blighted Barclays Premier League matches over the Christmas period, Professional Game Match Officials Ltd tried to make a case that 95 per cent of major decisions are correct. Last week Poll highlighted several game-changing gaffes and called for referees’ chief Mike Riley to be sacked. Poll was supported by former PGMOL head Keith Hackett, who branded the current officials the ‘worst we have ever seen’ and named four top-flight referees he thought should be axed
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Mike Riley claimed that 95 per cent of major decisions are correct
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Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) also said penalty-box calls were 98 per cent right and offside calls 99 per cent correct
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Former PGMOL head Keith Hackett had branded current officials the 'worst we have ever seen'
And in a bid to undermine their critics, PGMOL argued standards had improved since @placeholder left five years ago.
In light of this, @placeholder said standards had ‘sunk to their worst level that I can remember’ and Hackett cited ‘over 20 major errors’ during the Christmas period.