John Brooks has been removed from his role as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) operator for Liverpool’s match against Everton on Monday and Arsenal’s game against Manchester City on Wednesday.
This was due to errors made during Brighton’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday where a goal was disallowed because of improper use of VAR. Andre Marriner will be stepping in for Brooks on Monday, while David Coote will take over on Wednesday.
The CEO of the referees’ union, PGMOL, Howard Webb, has stated that Premier League officials will be meeting this weekend to discuss the recent mistakes in the use of VAR. Webb has already reached out to Brighton and Arsenal to rectify the errors made in their games.
Lee Mason, who now solely handles VAR duties, did not call for an offside review on Brentford’s equalizer against Arsenal. He did review Ivan Toney’s 74th-minute goal after Ethan Pinnock’s challenge on Gabriel, an Arsenal defender, but the incident was ruled not to have taken place. Mason had no say in the offside position of Christian Norgaard during the buildup.
Pervis Estupinan’s goal against Selhurst Park was also overturned after a VAR review showed that he was offside. The offside line should have been drawn by a Palace defender, Marc Guehi, who was positioned deeper and played Estupinan onside.
