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.
Mabbdeilmn
475
He actually deserves to get fired but no actions taken anyway and so this corruption will continue to keep taking place in EPL
Tepdeortz
462
I couldn't understand why those two corrupted guys in VAR room didn't warn the referee. VAR and AVAR can push a button to speak to referee. Clearly they've done that on purpose, part of official article: A video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official, with independent access to match footage, who may assist the referee only in the event of a ‘clear and obvious error’ or ‘serious missed incident’ in relation to: a. Goal/no goal b. Penalty/no penalty c. Direct red card (not second yellow card/caution) d. Mistaken identity (when the referee cautions or sends off the wrong player of the offending team) So both "serious missed incident" and " clear and obvious error" actions apply here, referees can stop the match any time even during play. Whole thing is a show and joke.
ColinsGooner
387
they always get away with it,just like that he is free,and who is next to not referee a match of a certain team,im just wondering
vawaceknry
159
Always remember and keep on the error ok
bubbilopuz
113
So in otherwords what are they telling us?they obviously admitting that Darren England intentionally stole the match from liverpool and is a liverpool hater?else not why would they not ban him fully for the season?its admission that he wont do it against other teams so he can be trusted to var other matches but not liverpool because of his obvious bias and match fixing against liverpool, ok,we understand,you're admitting he's corrupt and cant be trusted with liverpool matches..😀😀😀😀👍👍👍
Coybelotz
97
what's the connection between' I can't do anything' and' I can't breathe'? I can't breathe is associated with the American political movement ' Black Lives Matter' , particularly with the deaths of Eric Garner(2014) and George Floyd (2020) among many others in much the same circumstances: being put in chokehold by a law enforcement officer or in custody. So 'I can't breathe' resulted in death for the victims. Now the Darren England ' I can't do anything' phrase is most likely going to result in Liverpool losing the title this season, and this is a form of death, isn't it? Remember that in 2018/19 and 2021/22 Liverpool missed out on the title by a one point margin to City, respectively. So I suggest that Liverpool fans should start a protest movement called ' My Goals Matter', the slogan for which is 'I can't do anything'.