Robbie Fowler won UEFA award for class act during Arsenal vs Liverpool

Robbie Fowler once won an award for telling the referee not to award Liverpool a penalty against Arsenal.

During a 1997 clash at Highbury between the two sides, Fowler went down in the penalty area under the challenge of David Seaman.

It looked a stonewall penalty and referee Gerald Ashby pointed to the spot.

However, there were immediate protests from Seaman and Arsenal defenders.

But, rather unusually, Fowler also protested.

He held up both of his hands and waved them in protest appearing to say “No ref!”

Ashby was put in an awkward decision but the penalty kick stood.

But it was a class gesture from Fowler, who was awarded a commendation from UEFA for his honesty.

What happened next was interesting, though.

Despite claiming it wasn’t a penalty just seconds previously, Fowler stepped up to take the kick.

His tame effort was parried by Seaman but Jason McAteer made no mistake from the rebound.

Liverpool went on to win the match 2-1.

Some fans claimed that Fowler had missed on purpose but he insisted that wasn’t the case as he retold the penalty many years on.

“I just remember getting up and seeing David Seaman. There was all the talk of ‘did he dive or didn’t he’ but I just lost momentum when I jumped over him and fell over,” Fowler told the Liverpool Echo.

“It wasn’t a penalty and because he was my mate from the England side, I just said it wasn’t a pen. I don’t think there were too many happy Liverpool fans or too many happy Liverpool management on the bench but two good things came out of it for me that day.

“I helped Jason McAteer score his first ever Liverpool goal and I got a fair play certificate from UEFA so it was not a bad day – and we ended up with the win as well. I didn’t miss the penalty on purpose, it