Darren England will not be sacked following his major blunder during Liverpool’s clash with Tottenham but the VAR official will not officiate another match featuring the Reds for the rest of the season.
That is according to the Telegraph, who reports that England has the backing of chief refereeing officer Howard Webb despite being removed by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) along with assistant Var Dan Cook for this weekend’s fixtures in the Premier League.
The duo made a monumental error in disallowing Luis Diaz’s perfectly good goal against Tottenham on Saturday but are expected to return to their duties after the international break, which offers some respite from the gathering storm that has developed this week.
The report states that nothing is set to change after the incident as the IFAB believes if referees and VAR officials were to re-review incidents it could potentially lead to chaos in the game. IFAB believes football has to accept human error will always play a part in the result of matches.
However, in addition to this, IFAB sources have said if the game had been stopped and the Diaz goal reinstated, Spurs would – in the event of defeat – had a strong case for a replay.
This whole situation is starting to get very messy and with every piece of information that comes out, fans are only getting angrier. The incident was a really bad one and it needs to be one that change is derived from.
CONSEQUENCES
The best referees are the forgettable ones. When someone asks you who refereed your match last week and you don’t remember, it’s a tribute to a job well done by that game’s referee.
The game is about the players and NOT the referees. Too many PGMOL referees are memorable. Not because they’ve done a great job but because they stamp their mark into game situations that determine the outcome either by bias, by habit or by just plain bad refereeing. All too often, these referees are the same culprits who are involved in controversy time after time. They give good honest referees a bad rap not just in the PL but in all of Europe.
Every league all around the world in every sport has these kinds of referees & umpires. A good Referees manager knows how to get the best out of the referees under his charge and weed out the bad apples. Howard Webb has failed to encourage, inspire and lead the referees into performing at the standards required and expected of them week in and week out. He has failed to weed out the undesirables. The courteous slap on the wrist penalty bestowed for bad behavior or dereliction of duty for which they are handsomely paid is unacceptable and a joke. A good manager knows how to anticipate & instill processes on the field and in the VAR booth to anticipate and avoid problems and not just issue perfunctory apologies and apply band aids every time there is a problem. Take a look at the Professional Rugby Leagues or even Field Hockey. The VAR processes are well thought out and set up. Best of all their systems are transparent for all players, coaches, referees/umpires, the crowds and for those watching live all over the world.
Howard Webb has failed miserably. What happened at the Liverpool vs Tottenham match was unfortunate but not unpredictable. It was only a matter of time before this happened. After all, he has had to issue apologies almost every other week for his referees’ & VAR failures. Any CEO of a company with this many failures would have surely been fired a long time ago.
Howard Webb as Chief Refereeing Officer is handsomely paid upwards of £200,000 per year. The referees under his charge too are well paid. Yet, he continues to fail miserably week after week. His lack of results & leadership has given the Premier League its biggest black eye yet. The PL touts itself as the best football league in the world yet unquestionably the referees are sadly not up to the task. Why? Are the referees in other European Leagues bigger, taller, faster or with higher IQ? The answer of course is a resounding NO. It’s training, leadership, expectations, accountability & consequences that sets the standards.
It’s well past time for Howard Webb to go. He should do the honorable thing & resign.
#FireHowardWebb
Then why have VAR? If you are not going to get the right call after the review, and let’s face it this call was so clearly cocked up by the touchline ref, center ref and the VAR crew, then why even have it reviewed?
The call by the linesman in this game that DIaz was offside when he was so far ONSIDE was exactly what VAR was implemented for; to fix clear and obvious errors and to get the right decision. Thank goodness these guys are not air traffic controllers.
VAR is still absolutely necessary.It’s a system which,if managed by officials with integrity is the perfect referee’s tool.Without VAR,as some have been clamoring for,I can imagine how some inept and maybe corruptible referees,with collaboration from the linesmen,can run rampant in the EPL.The solution is not removal of VAR,but the present crop of geezers running it.
Liverpool should have a replay of the game with different officials
Why are players allowed to bully the ref take a note from rugby where argue or try to influence the ref ends in a yellow card and the ref needs to be stronger on the amount of cheating with players diving straight red card perhaps this will deter it
Until you do what world rugby do on the pitch and show the official discussing the problem with var and coming to a decision openly for all involved it will be a shambles.Get it in the open for all to agree or disagree and not a reply on the media