West Ham vs QPR referee told he should be sacked as fans fume over ‘one of the worst’ decisions

West Ham conceded a controversial penalty during their Championship clash against QPR.

West Ham United were on the wrong end of the 'worst' decision the Championship has seen this season during their clash against Queens Park Rangers.

The Hammers returned from the three-week international break with a chance to go top of the Championship table, but needed to win all three points at home against QPR.

Nuno Espirito Santo's men had won four of their opening eight league matches, though their chances of making it five from nine were dealt a huge blow early on.

Just 18 minutes into the game, West Ham conceded a penalty when Tomas Soucek appeared to bring down Paul Smyth inside the box.

But replays showed that the midfielder was completely hard done by, as he timed his sliding challenge to perfection. In fact, the contact he made on the ball happened just outside the 18-yard box.

Nicolas Madsen calmly slotted home the resulting spot kick, while fans across the Championship branded the decision from referee Ruebyn Ricardo as one of the worst of the season.

"THIS REFEREE SHOULD BE SACKED IMMEDIATELY. HOW HAS HE GIVEN A PENALTY FOR SOUCEK WINNING THE BALL?! First of all he tackles him outside the box. Second of all it is a PERFECT tackle," one account wrote.

"One of the worst referee decisions you will see all season, Soucek gets the ball," another commented.

"That penalty just given in the West Ham game, unbelievable tackle from Soucek," a third stated.

"West Ham have been robbed. That's not a penalty. Tomas Soucek gets the ball," someone else posted, while a fifth even suggested that VAR would be the solution in this instance. They tweeted: "Soucek with one of the best tackles I’ve seen in ages and the ref gives a penalty. I’m gonna get some hate for this, but VAR does have it positives."

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West Ham almost completed a second-half comeback, but Jarrod Bowen – who got his side back on level terms – then missed a penalty of his own in added time.

Still, all the talk after the game was on QPR's spot kick that shouldn't have been.

VAR would have undoubtedly overturned that decision, but the technology has only earned a bad reputation since being brought into the Premier League at the start of the 2019/20 season.

That is because the majority of fans and clubs are against the idea of VAR being introduced into the Championship – even when teams are on the receiving end of highly controversial decisions.

In April, it was reported that clubs in the second tier turned down the chance to introduce a version of the video assistant referee for the 2026/27 campaign.

Football Video Support (FVS), a variation of VAR that needs fewer resources and gives each coach two reviews per game, could have been brought in from August.

But even after the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) gave a presentation at the EFL's annual meeting last month, it was clear clubs were strongly against any kind of video review system in the Championship.

That would have been a disappointing outcome to a few of the division's managers, including Philippe Clement, who said there are "moments where I miss VAR to get the right decisions" after his side conceded a penalty against Ipswich in April.

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