Referee Paul Tierney has not been selected to officiate a Premier League match this weekend following the controversy over one of his decisions during Liverpool’s win at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Tierney has been heavily criticised by sections of the game for incorrectly restarting play with a drop ball during the Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool fixture.
The official allowed Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher to restart the match after stopping play for a head injury to Ibrahima Konate. Forest had the ball at the time and many believe the home side should have been given it back in an attacking area of the pitch.
This decision might have gone unnoticed but all the attention has been drawn to it as Darwin Nunez would go on to score the winner just a short time after.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Tierney has not been chosen to referee in the next round of Premier League games and will instead be the video assistant referee (VAR) for Arsenal’s home match against Brentford on Saturday evening.
PGMOL protecting Paul Tierney after controversy
The Professional Game Match Officials Ltd insist Tierney has not been dropped and is just one of a group of officials who regularly alternate between refereeing and being on VAR duty, reports the Liverpool Echo.
This looks like their way of protecting Tierney following the backlash last weekend as the official has not been having a good season overall.
Liverpool have often had run-ins with the referee and Jurgen Klopp has even pointed it out in the past, but this time things went their way. Nevertheless, he made the wrong decision and it looks like the official is being semi-punished for it this weekend.