Nottingham Forest have written a letter of complaint to the Premier League asking referee boss Howard Webb for an explanation over the goal Ivan Toney scored against them for Brentford on Saturday.
Toney marked his return from an eight-month ban with Brentford's first goal, straight from a free-kick, in a 3-2 win for Thomas Frank's side.
However, the nature of the goal has forced the losing team to seek clarification from the relevant authorities.
As Toney prepared to take the free kick, the striker knelt and moved referee Darren England's disappearing foam to move the ball into a more advantageous position.
Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo voiced his objections after the game and his club subsequently wrote to the Premier League and Webb's refereeing organization, Professional Games Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).
The club has asked for an official answer to the question of whether players are allowed to move the ball and draw their own lines for a free kick. If the answer is 'no', Forest want to know why the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) did not intervene by classifying the matter as a 'serious bad incident' which resulted in a goal.
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Toney's statement after the game was that it was within the rules to move the position of a free kick as long as it was under one yard.
“This is new, it’s the first time I’ve heard this,” Nuno said. “Of course (I had problems). Everyone in the room will have seen the ball shift and the law is clear. Every goal needs to be checked. Every situation must be examined if it leads to the goal.”
Nuno also admitted that his players should have been more aware of Toney's intentions and either alerted the referee or moved the defensive wall accordingly. Instead, Toney had to curl a low shot into the corner of the goal, which goalkeeper Matt Turner had released.
“We have to be more mature in this situation,” said Nuno, whose team was leading 1-0 at the time. “You can't allow the ball to move because it changed the position of the wall. Everyone thinks it was a mistake in the positioning of the wall. But it was a clear case of ball displacement. It wasn't just centimeters, it was almost a meter.
“The wall didn’t move because our players didn’t notice. This is our responsibility: stay in front of the ball and talk to the referee. But VAR must have seen that. Maybe they should help the referee with that.”
Forest's frustration has been compounded because they already believe they have been treated poorly by referees this season, particularly when centre-back Willy Boly was sent off for what appeared to be a fair tackle against Bournemouth, resulting in a 3-2 defeat. Home defeat at Nuno's led first game in charge.
(Alex Pantling/Getty Images)