Ashley Young mocks Nottingham Forest’s VAR complaints with song choice

Ashley Young appeared to mock Nottingham Forest after the veteran Everton player was involved in a number of penalty claims which Forest bitterly disputed.

Everton won the crucial match against their rivals near the bottom of the Premier League after surviving three major penalty appeals. The incidents, all involving Everton’s Young, were checked and cleared by the video assistant referee during the fixture at Goodison Park.

Goals from Idrissa Gueye and Dwight McNeil secured the hosts a crucial victory in the relegation battle, moving them four points clear of their opponents.

Forest later described the decisions as “extremely poor” and implied that VAR official Stuart Attwell was a Luton fan and thus potentially biased – the Hatters are also engaged in a survival fight – in a post on X shortly after the full-time whistle.

The FA is investigating Forest’s tweet, as well as post-match comments made by defender Neco Williams and an article written in the Daily Mail by the club’s referee consultant Mark Clattenburg.

“Old Skool Tunes For Today,” Young tweeted on Monday morning, alongside a screenshot of the song Cry Me a River by Justin Timberlake and two winking emojis, suggesting he does not have much sympathy for Forest’s grievances.

Forest have now asked Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to release the audio of the contentious moments, and have called on the body to change its rules around selection of match officials to include “contextual rivalries in the league table” when considering who a referee supports.