Nottingham Forest ask PGMOL to release audio from Everton game

The Nottingham Forest team has requested that the audio recording of the communication between the officials during their loss to Everton last Sunday be made available to the public.

At this time, the Football Association has requested feedback from Forest, their manager Nuno Espirito Santo, their defender Neco Williams, and their analyst Mark Clattenburg regarding the statements they made after the game.

The team was extremely angry when the referees disapproved of three requests for penalties during their game against Goodison Park, leading to a final score of 2-0 against them. This loss meant they were only one point away from falling into the lower division of the Premier League.

A post made on the external account of the club expressed outrage over the extremely poor refereeing decisions made. The post even mentioned that the club was thinking about possible options to deal with the situation.

However, even though the club expressed some worries to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), who oversee the referees, they did not make any request to remove Stuart Attwell from his role as video assistant referee during their upcoming game. A source has informed BBC Sport of this.

The club communicated that they gave a warning to the PGMOL about the VAR showing a biased preference towards Luton, however, they did not replace him.

On Monday afternoon, it was announced that Nottingham Forest made a formal request to the PGMOL. The request asked for the public release of audio recordings between officials from the match against Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday.

The team has asked that this information be shared regarding three significant events during the match. These events involve actions by Ashley Young, including his tackle on Giovanni Reyna in the 24th minute, his handball in the 44th minute, and his tackle on Callum Hudson-Odoi in the 56th minute.

We strongly encourage that the entire football community and fans should be able to obtain the recordings and written version of all conversations. This way, we can guarantee the honesty and fairness of our sport.

Liverpool made a request similar to this one when Luis Diaz's goal was mistakenly not counted in their 2-1 loss to Tottenham back in September.

The statement provided by the Premier League expressed great disappointment regarding Forest's social media post.

The statement stated that it is not acceptable to unfairly challenge the honesty of referees, and because of the type of remarks made, the Premier League will also look into the issue in regards to the League's regulations.

The manager Nuno expressed to BBC Sport that Forest believes that something is being taken away from them, and it's causing difficulty. Williams also mentioned that teams who are in the top six would receive all three penalties.

The forest team felt very annoyed and disappointed about three times when they wanted a penalty, all of which involved the Everton defender Ashley Young.

The team believes that he made contact with Gio Reyna’s shoe while trying to tackle him when the score was tied. Later on in the first half, a pass from Callum Hudson-Odoi hit Young’s arm.

The third event occurred in the second half when Young attempted to steal the ball from Hudson-Odoi by approaching from the back. The referees deemed that Young had obtained possession of the ball without committing a foul.

After the game, Forest made a post on X expressing their dissatisfaction with three awful choices made by the officials during the match. These choices led to three penalties not being given, which is unacceptable to the team.

We have been tried and tested many times, putting our patience to the ultimate test.

Following a string of unfavorable rulings, Forest brought on Clattenburg, a retired referee, to serve as their referee analyst.

The retired official penned an article in the Mail on Sunday, expressing that Forest felt unfairly treated after losing yet again without the benefit of any significant calls.

Young seemed to not take the matter seriously in a post on X on Monday. He wrote "Old Skool Tunes For Today" and shared a photo of himself playing Justin Timberlake's song 'Cry Me A River'.

Forest now stand at the 17th position in the Premier League after getting the result, where they managed to secure one point above the relegation zone. They have four more games to play.

The Forest team is contesting the punishment of losing four points due to violating the rules of profit and sustainability (PSR). The appeal is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 24.