Liverpool manager Rafael BenÃtez backs 'beach ball goal' referee Mike Jones
20 October 2009 09:04
Jones has been demoted to the Championship for next week’s matches after his mistake – Bent’s goal should have been ruled out after it struck the inflatable which under Fifa rule constitutes ‘outside interference’ – and will take charge of Peterborough against Scunthorpe at London Road.
Former colleagues in Graham Poll, Dermot Gallagher and Jeff Winter have been outspoken in their criticism of Jones but Benítez has backed the young match official and insists Liverpool will not seek to have the match replayed.
“The situation is that we cannot change this,” Benítez said.
“I think that the rule is very clear. Everybody knows and all the experts agree that the goal had to be disallowed but we cannot do anything now so we have to move forward.
“I don’t know if he didn’t know about the rule, maybe he couldn’t see.
"Anyway I think that it is better to move on. I think the referees and Keith Hackett [the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd] know that a mistake has been made, but I do not want to criticise.
“He is a young referee and there are not too many referees around the world, so if you have someone who has a passion and wants to be a good referee, then the best thing to do is to just move on.
“I said after the game that we did not play well because I did not want to use the incident as an excuse.
"It was an important situation because, with the problems that we had, to start the game by going a goal behind was not the best situation for us.
“But still it is something that you have to forget and to think only about what you can influence now, like this Champions League game [against Lyons at Anfield this evening].
"A lot of people are saying that the game should be replayed but we will not be asking for this.”
