Gary Lineker's football being 'invaded by referees' rant' makes Alan Shearer and Micah Richards laugh
Gary Lineker believes referees are taking over football and criticized the decision to disallow Southampton's goal on Sunday.
The former England striker has also taken issue with officials also commenting on matches.
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The Saints, bottom of the Premier League, saw Ryan Manning's goal at Molineux controversially discarded.
It was originally kept but was ruled out after VAR intervened and Mateus Fernandes was penalized for a foul on Nelson Semedo. The wolves won 2-0.
Discussing the moment The rest is footballLineker said: “I wonder if (the referees) sit there and think that, with the referee's decision, we're not getting involved enough.
“'Oh, I want to get a little more involved in this game.'
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“It's almost as if the referees have taken over football. Now they are the ones who make the laws.
“They define the laws. They referee the matches. Now they have the VAR and now we have this fashion of commenting on referees!”
At this point, his co-hosts Micah Richards and Alan Shearer start laughing as Lineker gets angrier and angrier.
“It's like we're being taken over!” Lineker continued, raising his hands in the air.
“We are invaded by Mars by a bunch of referees!
“Almost everyone uses a referee as a co-commentator to tell us when someone is offside, but can we see it ourselves?!”
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After Richards said he felt sorry for the referees, Lineker responded: “Me too, it's the hardest job.”
Richards again backed up the former Tottenham player's point, however, continuing: “But when a referee is calling a match and the referee making the comment gets it wrong, then what's the point of having them?”
He continued: “We don't take a referee's license, they have to know all the rules from start to finish.
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“We're just using common sense as former players, we know the rules. You certainly do that with Gaz anyway.”
Shearer backed them both, as he also weighed in on Saturday's decision.
“My opinion is that the VAR referee should not have been involved,” he said. “I should have let this continue.
“It was a goal. And the referee saw it very well on the field. He was only ten meters away, he was staring at it.”
The PGMOL found itself mired in fresh controversy two days after the Southampton controversy.
Images appeared on social media that appear to show the Premier League referee David Coote makes insulting comments about Liverpool and their former coach Jürgen Klopp.
That included calling the Reds legend a “German moron.”
Coote has been suspended while the PGMOL investigates the incident.
