03 December 2023 , 19:17
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Erling Haaland has questioned Simon Hooper's decision to stop the play late in Manchester City's 3-3 draw against Tottenham.
The referee controversially refused to award City an advantage when Haaland was fouled inside his own half. The Norwegian got back up to his feet and played Jack Grealish through on goal before Hooper blew his whistle, leaving Pep Guardiola's players furious.
Haaland was spotted shouting "f*** off" in Hooper's direction after the final whistle and wasted no time in complaining on social media. The striker reposted video footage of the incident on X with the caption: "WTF". That abbreviation stands for "what the f***".
Sky Sports pundits Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher tried and failed to make sense of Hooper's decision to pull back the play for a foul on Haaland. Replays show that Hooper only blew his whistle once Grealish was clean through on goal.
PGMOL, the body in charge of refereeing in the Premier League, are now under huge pressure to explain Hooper's actions. City boss Guardiola refused to comment on the incident in his post-match interview, insisting he will "not do a Mikel Arteta comment".
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"I don’t understand," a perplexed Richards told Sky Sports when analysing Hooper's controversial decision. "The ref had a good game, until this moment. He puts the whistle to his mouth, stops, waves it on. And then stops the play. Which I don’t understand."
Richards believes Hooper made an error. He added: "He should’ve let play go on, Grealish is one-on-one with the keeper. You can’t explain that. We’ve had so many situations where play is allowed to go on, if in doubt let it go on. We can always bring it back."
Haaland made his feelings known on social mediaWhat did you make of the incident? Let us know in the comments below!
Carragher, meanwhile, has urged PGMOL chief Howard Webb to analyse the incident. PGMOL are yet to break their silence on the matter. "They need to get to the bottom of this," said the Liverpool icon. "It was a foul but to put your arm up and blow the whistle."
Guardiola had little interest in discussing Hooper's decision at full-time. He said: "Next question. I will not do a Mikel Arteta comment.
"The referee will now whistle after saying play on, after the pass then whistles. So I don’t know. We created a lot of chances, we were aggressive. Football is like life, sometimes you don’t get what you deserve. Congratulations to Spurs for the point. That is football."
Ange Postecoglou was also quizzed about Hooper's questionable whistle. The Spurs boss said: "It doesn't affect me at all. I don't think that is the story of the game today, there are better storylines from that fantastic game of football than one refereeing decision."