Is Howard Webb’s return the Death of the Premier League?

The English Premier League has built itself a reputation of being Europe’s most watched, most marketed and perhaps most competitive league across Europe’s division, a reputation it has held for some decades now.

However, it has also held a status as being the most controversial league in the bunch, with many negative reports often coming against it when it pertains to refereeing decisions.

Compared to the other leagues in Europe, the Premier League has received the most criticisms over the officiating of its match day officials in games, which has now transitioned into how the English league and English referees are viewed in general.

Efforts to set some sort of correction have plagued the league into further controversies, with every rule change, or regulation welcoming more negativity to the game and criticisms.

Just last weekend, the premier league referees awarded a total of 5 red cards to players in relation to the new rules and regulations by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), a body that is responsible for refereeing games in the English league, now headed by the famous Howard Webb.

Ahead of the new season, Howard Webb engineered some changes to the previous refereeing rules the match day officials abided, in the aim of changing the narratives, but as the games have gone by, more controversy has stirred up than an improvement made.

The VAR calls have become more controversial, refereeing calls become more complicated, with little rooms given or allowed for players or managers to call decisions into question without risking a penalty.

The second weekend of the premier league season welcomed one controversial red card call in the fixture between Liverpool and AFC Bournemouth at Anfield, where Liverpool player, Alexis Mac Allister was wrongly awarded a red card for a challenge on Ryan Christie.

The referee adjudged the incident to be a straight red card for the challenge, a decision widely disputed by pundits, fans and those in the game.

However, the VAR officials did nothing to call into the question the decision, and with the new rule implemented by Howard Webb asking officials not to go to the monitor, referee Thomas Bramall was allowed to go with his initial decision of a red card.

The call was one that very much could have taken the game out of Liverpool’s hands while placing into question the fairness of the game in its entirety had AFC Bournemouth come into the game and taken points off the Reds due to a poor refereeing decision.

As prove that decision was unfair, the Football Association had the red card overturned after its appeal by Liverpool, with Alexis Mac Allister set to return in the next game against Newcastle.

The red card incident wasn’t the first controversial incident this season that has gone off the rails, as Manchester United and Liverpool have arguably surrendered points following handball decisions not being called on as penalties in their respective games against Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

Wolverhampton Wanderers were also denied a point after a penalty call that pundits like Gary Neville agreed on against Manchester United in the season’s opening fixture was denied at Old Trafford.

The consistent controversies plaguing the premier league each season with little signs of positive improvements and the introduction of a one-time controversial referee, Howard Webb heading the refereeing body; PGMOL now raises the question on whether the English league is on its decent to ruining what the world has believed of English football.

Manchester City and Pep Guardiola’s consistent dominance of the league has already raised question marks over its competitive nature, will Howard Webb’s return become the league’s ultimate bane?