A petition to stop Anthony Taylor from refereeing Chelsea matches has now passed 100,000 signatures, meaning that it will be considered for debate in Parliament.
Fans were outraged at the 43-year-old official's decisions in a fiery encounter between Chelsea and Tottenham that ended 2-2 following Harry Kane's 96th minute equaliser, with both Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte being sent off after the final whistle.
The match, which had been bubbling with hot tempers throughout the second half, came to a frenetic conclusion in the final half an hour after two controversial decisions from Taylor and Mike Dean - who was on VAR duty - took over the narrative of the match.
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The two decisions that caused an outcry from Tuchel after the game came as Richarlison appeared to be blocking Edouard Mendy's view of the ball in an offside position for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to fire in to level the game at 1-1, 44 seconds after Kai Havertz looked to have been fouled in the build-up to the move. Then, in the final minute, Cristian Romero pulled Marc Cucurella's hair at a Spurs corner, only for both Taylor and Dean not to act on the 'violent conduct' and Kane to nod in from the resulting corner.
After the game Tuchel said: "I can’t understand how the first goal is not offside and I can’t understand when a player is pulled by their hair, the other player stays on the pitch. Pull someone else’s hair, stay on the pitch and attack the last corner. This is for me without any explanation and I don’t want to accept it. Both goals should not stand and it’s a fair result because we were brilliant, deserved to win. This is my point of view.
"Maybe it would be better [if Taylor didn't referee another Chelsea game]. But honestly, we also have VAR to help make the right decision. Since when can players be pulled by hair? Since when is that [not a foul]?
"If he [Taylor] does not see it, I do not blame him. I didn't see it. But we have people at VAR who check this. Then you see it and how can this not be a free kick and a red card? This doesn’t even have to do with the referee in this case. If he does not see something, that’s why we have people to check if there is a decisive error going on.”
The anger shown by Tuchel, which boiled over after the full-time whistle and will now be investigated by the FA, was matched by Chelsea fans who had already shown annoyance at Taylor's appointment for the match before the game, and resulted in a petition being set up which now has over 103,000 signatures on Change.org.
According to the government website: "After 10,000 signatures, petitions get a response from the government. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in Parliament."
Although the chances of Taylor being publicly banned from Chelsea matches is slim, especially as one of the senior referees in England, Chelsea fans have compiled a list of his previous misdemeanours, with the petition stating:
"Anthony Taylor has continued to make big decisions against Chelsea over the years in big matches. Taylor has an agenda against Chelsea and should not be allowed to referee a game involving the club again.
Decisions made:
• Kovacic red card FA Cup Final
• Maguire stamp on Batshuayi
• Gazzaniga kick on Alonso
• Romero pulling Cucurella's hair
• Reece James ‘Handball’ v Liverpool
• Sanchez hand ball FA Cup final
• Azpilicueta 'push'
• Maguire hold on Azpi
• Lo Celso stamp on Azpi, no red
• Giroud ‘offside’ v United
• Werner no foul/penalty v City
• Emi Martinez outside the box, not penalised"
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