The two referees who were on VAR duty for the match between Liverpool and Tottenham on Saturday evening have been stood down for their next two games. Darren England and Dan Cook were set to be involved in officiating Sunday’s match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford, as well as on Monday night when Chelsea take on Fulham.
England and Cook were both involved in disallowing Luis Diaz’s goal against Spurs on Saturday evening, despite the winger being onside due to the outstretched leg of Cristian Romero. The Colombia international’s disallowed opener came just moments before Son Heung-min gave Tottenham the lead, prompting questions about how the match would have panned out under different circumstances.
Liverpool went on to lose the match 2-1, with Joel Matip scoring an own goal in the last minute of added time. PMGOL quickly apologised to Jurgen Klopp’s side for the first-half error and ruled that they would conduct a full review of the incident.
It has been suggested that VAR thought that the on-field officials had awarded Diaz’s goal, despite the linesman raising his flag to indicate that he thought the ex-Porto star was offside, and therefore the quick-fire check was simply to agree with the decision, though that has not officially been confirmed.
The referee’s body have already taken steps to try and understand the mishap further and have consequently removed both Cook and England from their upcoming fixtures as part of the ongoing review. Therefore, Craig Pawson has now become the fourth official at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon, replacing England, with Eddie Smart set to be the assistant referee at Craven Cottage on Monday rather than Cook.
The outcome of the review remains to be seen, with the VAR lines that were drawn on the still image of Diaz making his run down the right wing still yet to be released.
PMGOL’s statement read: “PGMOL acknowledges a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool. The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials.
“This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention. However, the VAR failed to intervene. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
