Roberto De Zerbi SLAMS officials as ‘not good enough’ and accuses Howard Webb of wasting his time

Furious Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi has criticized Premier League officials as “not good enough” and accused chief referee Howard Webb of wasting time.

De Zerbi received a red card from referee Darren England in the tunnel after his team were beaten 1-0 by Fulham. The Italian confronted the official but said he had not used any inappropriate language.

Webb visited several top-flight clubs following multiple VAR failures in games last weekend. Brighton were one of the teams affected, as Pervis Estupinan had a goal incorrectly disallowed for offside after John Brooks drew the wrong defender’s line.

“I didn’t like the referee’s attitude, I think he doesn’t have a good level of refereeing,” De Zerbi said. But I think that the referee in the Premier League is not enough for this very important league. I didn’t swear at him, I heard the opponent swear at him.

“I told the referee that this week he had a meeting with his boss and I wasted time. I lost two hours, three hours with him.

Furious Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi slammed Premier League officials as “not good enough”

Refereeing chief Howard Webb visited several top-flight clubs following multiple VAR failures in matches last weekend

Brighton had a penalty appeal turned down when Joel Veltman was challenged by Antonee Robinson in the box, but they were also frustrated with the lack of action against Fulham’s time wasting and the number of stoppages in the game.

‘I did not see [a] penalty in the second half but I remember well the penalty against Leicester and the penalty against Aston Villa.

‘I want to be clear. If you want to come to me to have a meeting and if you want to waste two hours of my time, of my work, you have to have another, a different attitude in the field.

‘If you are a referee and I am a coach. If you want to improve, if you want to improve our work in football, it has to be with a different attitude. I don’t want to talk about a particular situation, it was a penalty, other things. I’m just talking about attitude.

De Zerbi said his red card was “not right” and seemed to suggest he had been penalized because England had mistakenly attributed inappropriate language used by a Fulham player to him.

‘I can hear an opponent say [a] bad word and I will not repeat this word. The referee without personality to keep the game under control. I once wasted time with the meeting and it will never happen again. I’m not in England just to waste my time in meetings.

De Zerbi received a red card from referee Darren England in the tunnel after his team were beaten 1-0 by Fulham.