The organization representing England’s top referees effectively admitted on Sunday that VAR’s decisions not to allow West Ham and Newcastle goals this weekend were wrong, as it promised to “cooperate fully” in a assessment of the incidents in the Premier League. The board of the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMOL) took the unusual step of “acknowledging” the specific controversies in a statement released Sunday. VAR decisions in matches are already judged by a five-member independent panel made up of representatives from the Premier League and PGMOL, as well as three former players. Their findings are sent to the concerned clubs.
The controversy that arose when West Ham were denied a late equalizer at Stamford Bridge and Newcastle scored in their 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace, that the PGMOL has agreed to this extra check.
“PGMOL acknowledges the incidents of disallowing the goals in Chelsea v West Ham and Newcastle v Crystal Palace games,” PGMOL said in a statement.
“We will fully cooperate and cooperate with the Premier League and their request to assess these two specific incidents, using the outcome as part of the ongoing assessment of weekly performance and the development of our match officials going forward.”
West Ham manager David Moyes was furious after a controversial end to his team’s 2-1 loss at Chelsea, where the Hammers’ Maxwel Cornet had a late equalizer disallowed by VAR.
Match referee Andy Madley awarded the goal and had no problems with Jarrod Bowen’s contact with Edouard Mendy after the Chelsea goalkeeper spilled the ball.
However, VAR ordered Madley to watch the incident on the field’s monitors and the goal was disallowed.
“I’m surprised that the VAR sent the referee to show him,” Moyes said. “But I thought that even if he goes to the TV there is no way he can turn this back because this is a goal.
“It was a ridiculously bad decision.”
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe reacted more cautiously to the reversal of an own goal from Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell.
Referee Michael Salisbury capped it for a foul by Joe Willock on goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, but Howe said: “I didn’t think it should have been disallowed, personally I thought it was a foul or a push on Joe Willock in the build- until the ball enters.
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“If anything, it’s a penalty if it’s not a goal, so I was very surprised with the outcome.”
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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