Express & Star

Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui: We trust the referees

Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui insists he ‘believes’ in Premier League referees, after a meeting with PGMOL chief Howard Webb.

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The former top flight official became the the chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited last year and was working his way around visiting each Premier League club.

His trip to Compton on Thursday was timely after Wolves’ VAR and refereeing controversies against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest this week.

Wolves had written to the FA and PGMOL after the incident at Anfield, and when asked if Webb was able to offer Wolves any assurances or an explanation, Lopetegui said: “I feel safe. If we don’t believe in the referees, we are lost.

“It’s very important to keep fair competition. We are talking about England, one of the best countries in football with the best competition in the world. Sometimes, I make a mistake, you’ll make a mistake and the referee can make a mistake too.

“In the end of the competition, these mistakes will balance out. Sometimes they work against you and sometimes they work for you.

“We have a big confidence in the referees and their work.

“It was a good meeting and he was very polite. He had breakfast with us and we had the chance to talk with him and change impressions. In the end sometimes we agreed, and sometimes not, but he was very polite. This is all.

“I’m not going to translate what was said. It’s now the past.

“It wasn’t a special meeting as he was supposed to come. It was a polite visit, not only about our matches, and it was a very interesting talk.

“I can’t talk about it, but I can highlight that it was a very polite meeting.

“I feel very grateful for his visit and in the end, it’s very clear the actions that we have seen.

“But we didn’t only talk about this, we talked about a lot of football situations and he wanted to know our opinion about different things.

“It’s very clear what we have suffered in the last two matches, but this belongs to the past.”