Following his gaffe as the video assistant referee during Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham, Darren England has been substituted as the fourth official for Sunday’s Premier League game between Nottingham Forest and Brentford.
As the Reds were defeated 2-1 on Saturday, Darren was unable to reverse an inaccurate decision made on the field to disallow a Luis Diaz goal for offside.
Dan Cook was the game’s assistant VAR, and he has been replaced as an assistant referee for the match between Fulham and Chelsea on Monday.
“Craig Pawson will now assume England’s duties as fourth official at the City Ground while Eddie Smart will take over from Cook as assistant referee at Craven Cottage,” said referees’ body PGMOL.
What Went Wrong With Luis Diaz’s Goal?
At 0-0 and with Liverpool down to 10 men, winger Diaz’s goal was disallowed on the pitch, with Darren England affirming the call following a fast VAR assessment that did not include the typical offside line graphic.
BBC Sport understands that the proper protocol was followed for the contentious decision, but the error was due to human error.
The lines were drawn according to standard procedure, and every other feature was scrutinized.
However, sources claim that a gap in attention resulted in a loss of focus around the first on-field decision, followed by a ‘check complete’ confirmation rather than an intervention that would have resulted in the goal being awarded.
According to a PGMOL statement issued following the game: “A significant human error occurred”.
It added: “The goal by Luiz 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.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp remarked after the game that his team’s setback came in “the most unfair circumstances” with “crazy decisions.”
“That is not offside when you see it,” he told Sky Sports.
“The ball is between Mo [Salah]’s legs, they drew the line wrong and didn’t judge the moment when Mo passed the ball right.”
Klopp also stated that the PGMOL statement “doesn’t help” and referred to Wolves’ apology for the decision not to award a penalty against Manchester United earlier this season.
Alan Shearer, a former England striker, called VAR’s gaffe “incomprehensible” on BBC Match of the Day.
“The one bit of VAR we have accepted and learned we can’t argue about was offside,” he said.
“This will put so much doubt into decisions that go on. It is a monumental error. We spotted it straight away.”
