Ex-FIFA official shocked by Andy Madeley 'verbal exchange' as Unai Emery reveals Aston Villa incident

Keith Hackett was shocked to hear Unai Emery's post-match comments about Andy Madeley on Saturday.

Aston Villa lost 2-1 at home against Nottingham Forest, leaving the 2025-26 Europa League champions second from bottom in the table and without a victory in four games.

While Villa did bag their first league goal of the campaign through Alysson in the 74th minute, goals by Liam Delap and Igor Jesus either side of that were enough to secure a big three points at Villa Park for Forest.

However, the game wasn't without controversy and Aston Villa finished the fixture with 10 men thanks to Ian Maatsen suffering an ankle injury after a rash challenge from James McAtee.

By the time that happened, Emery had used all of his substitutes, meaning he had to see through the final 10 minutes a man down.

Jesus scored Forest's winner two minutes from the end and Emery has pointed blame at referee Madeley for the reason why he ran out of subs.

What Unai Emery said about Andy Madeley

Tyrone Mings replaced an injury Pau Torres in the 25th minute, before Emery substituted off George Hemmings and Nicolas Jackson at half time.

Johan Manzambi and Ibrahim Mbaye replaced Ross Barkley and Emi Buendia, respectively, in the 63rd minute, meaning that Emery had used up all five of his allow substitutions.

Emery believes that he had no choice but to substitute Jackson off as he was booked in the first half, and he claims Madeley told him that the Senegal striker was close to getting sent off.

"I changed Nicolas Jackson because he has a yellow card and the referee was telling us he needed to keep calm because he could have another yellow card. This is the reason I [substituted] him, to avoid it," said Emery.

But, according to former Premier League referee Hackett, Madeley's actions weren't what he expected from a match official.

Why Keith Hackett isn't impressed by Madeley's comments to Emery

Hackett doesn't think that Madeley is in a position to be advising managers on what to do with players because of their actions on the pitch.

The former PGMOL general manager says that it's acceptable for a referee to speak to a captain in order to get a player to start behaving, but speaking to Emery didn't sit right with him.

"When any player receives a yellow card in a game, the manager should be monitoring closely the player's behaviour and the risk of that player receiving a second yellow and being sent off," Hackett told Villa News.

"I'm surprised that a match official should have a verbal exchange with a manager advising him that his player is at risk of a second yellow - certainly not to influence the manager to take off his player.

"The route should be with the captain on the field suggesting that he might have a word with his colleague to calm down."