Aston Villa has complained to the organization overseeing match officials in English soccer after manager Unai Emery accused referee Thomas Bramall of making a “big mistake” that potentially cost the team a place in the lucrative Champions League.
A win over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday would have secured Villa a top-five finish in the Premier League and a place in Europe’s elite club competition — and with it a windfall of at least $90 million.
Morgan Rogers thought he had given Villa a 1-0 lead in the 73rd minute when he dispossessed United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir and slotted the ball into an empty net. However, referee Bramall blew for a foul by Rogers on Bayindir, deeming that the goalkeeper had possession of the ball in his hands before the midfielder kicked it away.
Villa’s players and Emery protested but Bramall’s decision stood, with the Premier League saying on X: “The whistle was blown by the referee before the ball entered the goal, therefore the incident was not reviewable by the VAR.”
United scored about three minutes later through Amad Diallo and wound up winning 2-0, dropping Villa into sixth place — one spot out of the Champions League qualification positions — and into the Europa League.
At the final whistle, Emery stood motionless on the touchline and stared at Bramall for a long time. After confronting the official as he came off the field, Emery continued his discussions with him as they went down the tunnel.
“The TV is clear with the move but of course we have to accept it,” Emery said. “It was a mistake. A big mistake.”
Asked whether he spoke to the referee about the incident, Emery said: “Yes, I told him but he knows it.”
Hours later, Villa said it had written to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited “to raise concerns over the selection process of match officials” for the game.
“With such high stakes surrounding today’s fixture, the club believe a more experienced referee should have been appointed,” Villa said in a statement. “Of the 10 referees to officiate across the Premier League today, Mr. Bramall was the 2nd least experienced.”
Villa said the decision to disallow Rogers' goal “was a major contributing factor to the club not qualifying for the Champions League.”
“As per the standards that have been established over the course of the season, a decision to whistle early is clearly inconsistent with current refereeing guidelines,” the club said. “VAR exists to ensure that these types of situations receive the scrutiny they deserve. Unfortunately, the technology was not allowed to serve its purpose.”
Villa acknowledged the outcome of the game “will not change.”
“But we believe that it is important to address the selection methodology to ensure that high-stakes matches are treated as such with regards to officiating and to ensure that the implemented VAR technology is allowed to be effective,” the club added.
Villa captain John McGinn described Bramall's call as “incredible.”
“It's so, so hard to take especially when the impact it has on us, as a club and a team, is so big,” the midfielder said. "It's really, really tough to take and handle.
“I don't think we deserved to win but if you were 1-0 up at that point and all you need is a point to get to the Champions League, it's costly.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery, center, during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Aston Villa at Old Trafford, Manchester, England, Sunday May 25, 2025. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Aston Villa at Old Trafford, Manchester, England, Sunday May 25, 2025. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Madison Chock and Evan Bates danced their way to a record-setting seventh U.S. Figure Skating title on Saturday night, showcasing their trademark creativity, athleticism and precision in their final competition before the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Now, the countdown is on for the moment they have waited for the past four years.
“We like to build momentum through the season,” Bates said, “and it's a great feeling going into a big event knowing you skated well the previous event. So we're going to roll with that momentum into Milan.”
Chock and Bates have dominated ice dance ever since they finished fourth at the Beijing Games, arguably the most disappointing and frustrating placement for any Olympian. They have won the past three world titles, the past three gold medals at the Grand Prix Final, and they have nobody within sight of them when it comes to competing against fellow Americans.
Performing a flamenco-styled dance to a version of the Rolling Stones hit “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi Western drama “Westworld,” Chock and Bates produced a season-best free skate inside Enterprise Center and finished with 228.87 points.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were second with 213.65 points and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third with 206.95, making those two pairs the likely choices to join Chock and Bates on the American squad for the Winter Games.
There wasn’t much drama in the dance competition.
At least for the top step.
Yet sometimes the winning programs aren’t necessarily the ones that win over the crowd. And while Oona Brown and Gage Brown only finished fifth, the sister-brother duo — former world junior champions — earned the first standing ovation of the night for their moody, creative and almost cinematic program set to selections from the film “The Godfather.”
“I think that was one of the best — if not the best — performances we’ve had,” Gage Brown said afterward.
The Browns ended a stretch in which several couples taking the ice made some kind of significant mistake, whether it was a skater stumbling to the ice, someone getting out of synch with their twizzles, or some other calamitous misfortune.
Then it was a parade of near-perfect programs, each couple trying to upstage the previous one.
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville were the first to knock the Brown siblings from first place, then reigning bronze medalists Caroline Green and Michael Parsons took over first place with their program, set to “Escalate” by Tsar B and “Son of Nyx” by Hozier.
Carreira and Ponomarenko, the U.S. silver medalists the past two years, knew a podium spot would probably earn them a spot on the Olympic team when they took the ice. And they delivered with a sharp program in which they seemed to channel the feeling and the characters from the 2006 psychological thriller film “Perfume: The Story of a Murder.”
“We had a bit of a rocky start to this season,” said Carreira, who was born in Canada but receiver her U.S. citizenship in November, making her eligible to compete at the Olympics. “I'm happy we got our act together and delivered a good performance here.”
It wound up being good enough for bronze.
That's because the 23-year-old Zingas, who made the difficult witch from singles to dance about four years ago, and the 24-year-old Kolesnik quickly assumed the top spot with a program set to music by Sergei Prokofiev from the ballet of “Romeo and Juliet.”
“It hasn't been an easy journey,” Zingas said, “and I think our unique approach to this season, and our unique style on the ice, really helped us, and it's really an emotional moment to be sitting here.”
Zingas and Kolesnik only held the top spot for about four minutes — the length of the free skate by Chock and Bates.
It almost seemed to be a forgone conclusion that they would win Saturday night. But the real pressure now begins: Chock and Bates finished eighth at the 2014 Olympics, ninth four years later, and came in fourth at the Winter Games in 2022.
Yes, they helped the Americans win team gold in Beijing, but even that was somewhat tainted. They never got a medal ceremony there because of a long investigation into Russian doping, which pushed their presentation all the way to the 2024 Summer Games.
They would love to help the U.S. win another team gold. But their target is unquestionably the ice dance title itself.
“It’s going to be a lot more of what it has been — we know what to do, we have our plan and we’re executing,” Chock said. “We don’t plan on deviating from it. We’re going to stick to it. Trust ourselves, trust our team and do what we know to do.”
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko skate during the free dance competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik skate during the free dance competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik react to their scores after the free dance competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates watch for scores after finishing the free dance competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the free dance competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
