Manchester United will make a formal complaint to referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited over what they feel was clear inconsistency in the decisions during Friday night’s 2-2 draw at Bournemouth.
United were left furious about “astonishing” and “baffling” refereeing decisions as two penalties were awarded and one was not in a match that saw the Cherries come from behind twice.
Harry Maguire’s special day – following his England recall – was spoiled by his sending off at Vitality Stadium, but it was the performance of the officials that had United fuming.
Maguire, who will return to the England squad for the first time in almost two years for upcoming friendlies with Uruguay and Japan, was sent off for pulling back Evanilson inside the box as Manchester United led 2-1 with 10 minutes to go.
Junior Kroupi subsequently scored the penalty but the decision not to award Manchester United an earlier spot-kick left interim manager Michael Carrick furious – especially after his side had also been awarded a penalty for what he deemed to be a similar challenge earlier in the match.
The penalty the visitors were not given came when Amad Diallo appeared to be pulled back inside the box by Adrien Truffert, with Manchester United leading 1-0 after Bruno Fernandes’ penalty.
Director of Football Jason Wilcox intends to speak with referees’ chief Howard Webb for an explanation and to express the club’s fury.
Bournemouth though will point to a first-half incident which saw Maguire escape punishment for what they believe was a push on Evanilson in the penalty area.
Carrick, who described the decisions made as “baffling”, said: “My first [thought] is he definitely got one of them wrong, because he’s given one penalty for the same thing that he’s not given one as a two-armed grab.
“So the Matheus Cunha one, he gives, the second one on Amad he doesn’t, which is, I think, almost identical, really, two hands on someone in the box, and they go over and they’re in control of the ball.
“Massive moment and I don’t understand how you can give one and not the other – it’s crazy. It’s as obvious as you can get.
“It’s clear, if that’s what he believes is a penalty to start with then the second one has to be. I don’t understand how you can’t give that. And then the goal and after that it was chaos. It’s astonishing.”
Manchester United captain Fernandes, meanwhile, felt that if Bournemouth’s penalty was given for a foul by Maguire, then so should one for the Diallo incident.
“I think we could have gone 2-0 up, and then we ended up conceding a goal, not getting a penalty and then we get a penalty against, where more or less it’s the same situation as Amad,” he said.
“One is awarded as a penalty, the other one not. I know it’s difficult for the referee to give two penalties in the same game for the same team but what I don’t understand is why VAR doesn’t get involved in that situation.”
