'Sh*thouse' - FA left 'disappointed' as former Tottenham star Jermaine Jenas vents anger at north London derby referee on social media - weeks after being the face of campaign against abuse of officials

The former Tottenham midfielder made that comment on X (formerly Twitter) during Spurs’ north London derby clash with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium. Jenas was responding to the decision to award the Gunners a second-half penalty for a supposed handball offence by Cristian Romero – with a long VAR review taking place before Robert Jones eventually pointed to the spot. Jenas posted on social media: “Complete sh*thouse of a referee! They’re all ruining our game!”

Jenas is a presenter on The One Show for the BBC and often features as a pundit on Match of the Day. He added after attracting criticism for his post: “It’ll happen to Arsenal at some point this year! If it takes that long after watching it over and over… then it’s not a pen.” He did, however, stop short of deleting his original post.

Jenas was chosen back in August to lead the ‘Love Football, Protect The Game’ campaign organised by the FA, Premier League, EFL and PFA – with a video produced in which he said: “Whether out on the pitch, in the stands or on the sidelines, we have all got to do better at all levels. No more surrounding refs, no more abuse. Let’s make sure that this season is different. Let’s protect the game.”

The Times reports that the FA are disappointed at Jenas’ online actions, while the chief executive of the Ref Support UK charity has said: “This was really disgraceful by Jermaine Jenas. One week he is being paid by the FA and other football bodies to front a campaign against the abuse of referees, the next he is posting abusive messages about a referee. The One Show has even done pieces about online abuse of match officials. I don’t think this adds to the image of the BBC either — it’s totally inappropriate. This kind of thing ends up with what we saw happened to Anthony Taylor last season when his family was harassed at the airport after he was criticised by Jose Mourinho after the Europa League final.”

It is claimed that the FA would not have used Jenas for their campaign had they known that he was not fully invested in their cause.