Anthony Taylor calls for fans to have 'more understanding and empathy' towards referees

Premier League referee Anthony Taylor wants supporters to show ‘more understanding and empathy’ towards officials.

A controversial call over the weekend not to award Everton with a penalty after Manchester City’s Rodri appeared to handle the ball angered Toffees boss Frank Lampard.

Referee Paul Tierney and VAR official Chris Kavanagh opted not to award a spot-kick, while the Premier League explained there was ‘not clear enough evidence to show conclusively that it was handball’.

Everton have now reportedly lodged a complaint and are calling for an apology to be given to Lampard and the Toffees players.

With referees the subject of increasing levels of criticism, Taylor was clear on what he would like from fans.

‘Well everybody only focuses on the right and the wrong,’ Taylor told The High Performance Podcast.

‘If one decision is wrong, that one decision, if we’re being brutally honest hasn’t cost the result.’

When quizzed on how he wants people to view referees, Taylor replied: ‘More understanding and more empathy.’

Lampard labelled the decision not to award his Everton side a penalty in their 1-0 defeat at the weekend as ‘incompetence at best’.

‘The decision is incredible, incredible, and that loses us the opportunity to get what we deserved,’ said Lampard.

‘That’s a VAR call. That’s Chris Kavanagh, I spoke to the referee and they know it is a penalty, the question is that is it offside and it wasn’t. That’s the reason we have VAR. It wouldn’t have needed more than five seconds to know it was a penalty. He [Kavanagh] should have either told the referee to give it or told him to go look at it.

“We’ve lost a point because of a professional who cannot do his job right. You start searching for whys and I can’t think why. It