Liverpool ‘will NOT be refereed by Darren England for the rest of the season’ after his disastrous VAR error, Â but the official WILL keep his job after retaining the faith of Howard Webb
Luis Diaz’s goal against Tottenham on Saturday was wrongly ruled out for offside
It came after a ‘significant human error’ by Darren England, who was on VAR
Darren England will reportedly not take charge of any further Liverpool games this season – but won’t lose his job – despite his major mistake in the Reds’ 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.
The official received significant criticism for his role as VAR during Saturday’s clash in north London, with England responsible for wrongly disallowing Luis Diaz’s goal, something that was described by PGMOL as a ‘significant human error’.
The error has been the talk of the footballing world in recent days with VAR as a process coming under fire, while Jurgen Klopp insisted the game should be replayed.
England has since been removed by the PGMOL for this weekend’s games, along with Dan Cook, who was assistant VAR for the Tottenham vs Liverpool match.
However, according to The Telegraph, the PGMOL’s Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb, retains full backing in England and he won’t be sacked from his role
There is hope from Webb that the forthcoming international break will ease the tension surrounding the incident, before the situation will be reviewed ahead of gameweek nine, which starts on October 21, regarding a potential return for England
England has refereed in the Premier League since August 2020 and was then promoted to FIFA’s list of international match officials last year, which has led to him taking charge of Europa Conference League games and Champions League qualifiers.
The 37-year-old will be financially impacted by his removal from this weekend’s schedule as he is set to miss out on a match fee of around £1,200, which comes on top of a basic salary of approximately £150,000.
It adds to what has been a tumultuous campaign so far for England, with the official guilty of some notable mistakes.
For example, he stuck with his decision to award Aston Villa a penalty against Crystal Palace last month which was later ruled as an error, while as VAR, he also failed to reinstate a Burnley goal against Nottingham Forest that was wrongly ruled out for handball.
Webb is not necessarily supportive of his predecessor Mike Riley’s desire to keep referees away from clubs where particular decisions have made them unpopular, but England is unlikely to be involved in any Liverpool games in the near future.
Refereeing chief Webb has shown his ruthlessness in the past when he sacked Lee Mason as a VAR official last season after multiple errors, while Mike Dean became an increasingly peripheral figure on VAR as the season went on.
However, he has kept faith with England on this occasion.
During Saturday’s clash England had thought referee Simon Hooper had awarded Diaz’s goal and therefore told the official that the check was complete when he saw the Colombian forward was onside.
But Hooper thought this meant the original ‘no goal’ decision was therefore correct and the subsequent release of the VAR audio from the incident has only heightened how disastrous England’s mistake was.
