The VAR official who erroneously sketched an offside line in Saturday’s match between Brighton and Crystal Palace has been suspended for two Premier League matches.
John Brooks has been substituted as VAR for the Merseyside derby on Monday night and the match between Arsenal and Manchester City on Wednesday. Andre Marriner and David Coote will operate the relevant monitors at each venue.
After a weekend with more VAR mistakes, Howard Webb, the head of the referees’ organization, the PGMOL, is calling a special meeting.
On Saturday, Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan was ruled offside and denied the first goal at Selhurst Park.
Brooks was sure that his call was based on an offside line based on where Palace defender James Tomkins was standing, while Marc Guéhi was sliding Estupinan onside from his holding position.
The game ended in a tie, with Brighton losing ground in their pursuit of a European position.
In the 1-1 tie between Arsenal and Brentford, the VAR, Lee Mason, did not call Christian Norgaard offside before Ivan Toney scored, which could have been a much bigger mistake.
Mason studied Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock’s position for more than three minutes, but he did not seem to undertake an offside check on Norgaard, who stood beyond the last defender as he collected the ball and set up Toney.
Mikel Arteta viewed the judgment as “frustrating” and said he had not been provided a conclusive visual demonstrating Norgaard was offside. As a result, Arsenal lost two points in the championship race.
“I, however, am not sure about the second [potential offside] because you have to see the boundary the way the cameras do,” he remarked. “It is unimportant.” “It has vanished.”
Sunday, the PGMOL said that Webb had reached out to Brighton and Arsenal to “admit and address the serious mistakes.”
On Tuesday, Webb will call a meeting of Premier League officials at Stockley Park. After the meeting, the next weekend’s officials will be chosen.
