Darren England was the VAR official when a Luis Diaz goal was incorrectly disallowed for offside; A communication error meant VAR thought the goal was given, before realising it had been ruled out by the on-field referee Simon Hooper
Tuesday 17 October 2023 16:01, UK
VAR officials Darren England and Daniel Cook will return to Premier League duty this weekend following their error in last month's fixture between Tottenham and Liverpool.
England and Cook were the VAR and VAR assistant respectively when Liverpool forward Luis Diaz's goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside against Tottenham.
Both officials were stood down the following week, but England will be back as the fourth official for Brentford's home game against Burnley on Saturday and Cook will return as assistant referee for Sheffield United's match against Manchester United, live on Sky Sports.
Miscommunication between VAR England and referee Simon Hooper led to Diaz's goal being wrongly ruled out on September 30.
England mistakenly believed the on-field decision had been to award the goal, leading him to tell Hooper that the check was complete.
After England and Cook were alerted to their mistake by the replay operator when the goal wasn't awarded, they repeatedly said they could not intervene as the game had restarted.
"Can't do anything," said England as the replay operator asked for the game to be stopped.
Hooper is the designated VAR for Newcastle's home game against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Speaking in the second episode of Match Officials: Mic'd Up, PGMOL chief Howard Webb explained why VAR failed to rectify the clear mistake.
According to Webb, England "lost sight of what the on-field decision was" after going through his processes "pretty quickly". The referees' chief insists efficiency is key but "not at the sacrifice of accuracy".
Webb also confirmed that the laws of the game, as set out by FIFA and IFAB, did not allow the officials to intervene and remedy the mistake, although England and Cook did ask themselves that question "when the penny dropped".
Webb said: "At that point they considered whether they could intervene to stop the game but they recognised that the laws of the game, set by FIFA and the IFAB, doesn't allow that. There's obviously a process in place that sits in the laws of the game about how we use VAR to make sure it is delivered consistently throughout every league in the world. And it doesn't allow you to go back in those circumstances. As such they decided not to intervene.
"But I understand why that question was asked and I know that IFAB are, in fact before this incident even happened, I knew that they were going to do a full review of the laws of the game relating to the use of VAR."
Michael Oliver, who was the fourth official at Tottenham vs Liverpool, will referee Manchester United's visit to Bramall Lane on Saturday.
He opted not to send off Manchester City's Mateo Kovacic for a challenge on Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard in the final round of fixtures before the international break, with Webb later admitting the Croatian midfielder was "fortunate" to stay on the pitch.
After the incident, Jurgen Klopp called for the game to be replayed.
He said: "It's really important that as big as football is and important as football is we deal with it in a proper way.
"All the people involved, the on-field referee, linesman, fourth official and especially in this case VAR, didn't do that on purpose. It was an obvious mistake and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards.
"Some people probably don't want me to say, but not as the manager of Liverpool so much, more as a football person, the only outcome should be a replay. That's how it is. It probably will not happen.
"The argument against [a replay] will probably be if we open that gate then everybody will ask for it. The situation is so unprecedented that I'm 56-years-old and I'm absolutely used to wrong decisions, difficult decisions but something like that as far as I can remember never happened.
"That's why I think a replay would be the right thing. If it happened again, a replay would be the right thing to do or the referee has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say, 'Sorry we made a mistake but we can solve it. Let Liverpool score a goal and we can start from there.'
"I'm not angry with anybody, not at all. We should not go for them. They made a mistake and they felt horrible that night, I'm 100 per cent sure. That's enough for me, nobody needs further punishment."
Liverpool vs Everton - Saturday; kick-off 12.30pm
Bournemouth vs Wolves - Saturday; kick-off 3pm
Brentford vs Burnley - Saturday; kick-off 3pm
Man City vs Brighton - Saturday; kick-off 3pm
Newcastle vs Crystal Palace - Saturday; kick-off 3pm
Nottingham Forest vs Luton - Saturday; kick-off 3pm
Chelsea vs Arsenal - Saturday; kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
Sheffield United vs Man Utd - Saturday; kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
Aston Villa vs West Ham - Sunday; kick-off 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports
Tottenham vs Fulham - Monday; kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
