Scribemen Magazine

Why Refereeing has become a Huge Problem in the Premier League

5–8 minutes
The specific virtual referee monitor used in Premier League Games (Photo Credit: Sky Sports UK)

By Matthew Polyak

On Saturday, November 5th, 2023, Newcastle United met Arenal at St. James Park to play out Matchweek 11 of the 2023-24 English Premier League soccer season. The match ended in a 1-0 victory to Newcastle, due to an Anthony Gordon goal, but not without controversy thanks to the referees and virtual assistant referees.

In total, the VAR check took 4 minutes, possibly the longest check ever.

It was broken down into 3 parts:

  • Whether the ball was kept in play by Newcastle and midfielder Joe Willock,
  • Whether Newcastle midfielder Joelinton intentionally pushed Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães,
  • And whether Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon was offside.

The first check began after the goal. As shown in the snapshot below, the ball is clearly outside of the white boundary. So why did the check continue from here?

Snapshot of the first check from the VAR officials, courtesy of Sky Sports UK

Next, the VAR checked to see if Joelinton pushed his fellow Brazilian national team teammate Gabriel.

Snapshot of the second check from the VAR officials, courtesy of Sky Sports UK

And finally, the last check was to determine if Anthony Gordan was offside, in front of the last defender or goal keeper. This one is definitely not as clear, unlike the first 2 VAR checks. Also, just to mention, Newcastle should have had a player sent off for a deliberate hit to the face!

Snapshot of the third check from the VAR officials, courtesy of Sky Sports UK

However, this was not the only game with significant VAR errors. More famously was the match between Tottenham and Liverpool on September 30th.

The game ended 3-2 in Tottenham’s favor, but the controversy surrounding the refereeing was the more discussed topic.

The game can be broken down into two distinct parts:

  • The validity of Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones’ red card
  • and the bizarre disallowance of Liverpool forward Luis Diaz’s goal.

To begin with, Curtis Jones attempted to win back possession for Liverpool by challenging for the ball. In the process of winning the ball, his foot went through the ankle of one of Tottenham’s platers. The officials argued that regardless of whether Jones had won the ball, the studs went into the foot of the other player, making the play “dangerous.”

Snapshot of the red card check from the VAR officials on the challenge from Curtis Jones, courtesy of Sky Sports UK

However, it is clear that this play wasn’t intentional, and that Jones’ foot accidently rolls of the ball, catching the player. Because the ball is round, his foot would have rolled off the ball, and Jones in that split second could not have done anything to stop his foot. This one is quite debatable and is the least controversial of the 2 calls.

After Jones was sent off, Luis Diaz proceeded to score by a fantastic pass from Mohamed Salah. However, the referee had originally disallowed the goal due to an apparent offside. However, when VAR looked back, it was clear that Diaz was on side. For some reason, the lines to show the level of Diaz and the level of the last defender were not drawn.

Snapshot of Luis Diaz’s goal that was disallowed by the VAR officials, courtesy of Sky Sports UK

PGMOL, the refereeing body in England, blamed the VAR officials, citing human error. According to their statement and audio recordings of the officials, which were eventually released after Liverpool inquired for an explanation, the referee had disallowed the goal because he believed it was offside. However, the VAR officials had believed he gave the goal. Because of this miscommunication, the VAR official, Darren England, gave Simon Hooper, the referee, a signal to keep the on field decision. Since Hooper did not communicate his on field decision to England, England could have never known it was not given.

PGMOL gave no background reason for why the lines were not drawn, which is quite strange. In the audio, 4th Official Michael Oliver calls for the game to be delayed after the incident so it can be resolved, but Darren England said “I can’t do anything. I can’t do anything.”

This is weird, because during the 2020-21 season, Manchester United was awarded a penalty for an incident during the game—right after the game finished when they played Brighton and Hove Albion! So they could resume the game after it ended but they could not pause it while it was ongoing?

However, Simon Hooper later on in the game also sent off Liverpool forward Diogo Jota for an apparent foul, which would have never warranted a second yellow. And of course, this is not the only games in which VAR refereeing errors have occurred. Here are a few more from this season alone:

  • Manchester United v. Wolves; Wolves should have been awarded a penalty for a misjudged attempt to win the ball from the goalkeeper
  • Tottenham v. Manchester United; Manchester United should have been awarded a penalty for a handball
  • Manchester United v. Nottingham Forest; Manchester United should have never been awarded a penalty due to a dive
  • Liverpool v. Bournemouth; Liverpool should have not had a player sent off
  • Tottenham v. Chelsea; Tottenham should have had a player sent off earlier for a reckless high-studs challenge
  • Tottenham v. Chelsea; Chelsea should have had a player sent off for a loose hand to an opponent

And to make my last point, in the 2019-20 season, Sheffield United played Aston Villa in a relegation battle. Bournemouth needed Sheffield United to win for them to stay up, while Aston Villa needed a win or draw for them to stay up, which would relegate Bournemouth.

During this game, Sheffield United had put the ball into the back of the net but the goal was not given because the referee did not believe it had crossed the line, when it clearly did. Goal line technology had apparently not activated and the referee at the time did not give the goal for that reason. Bournemouth was relegated to the 2nd division (EFL Championship) after the game finished 0-0 between Sheffield United and Aston Villa. The relegation costed Bournemouth millions in financial losses.

It is clear that there is a problem. In my opinion, the system itself is not the problem. VAR is a good thing because it can better the game—but it has its flaws. Still, it itself is not the main problem, but those who run it are. England has become infamous for notoriously poor refereeing, and those teams above are not the only teams to have been effected by it. Last season included a plethora of bad decisions as well.

PGMOL and the Premier League need to scrap the current officials and train the younger ones better. The Premier League could become an example for what good and fair refereeing looks like. And of course, these refs are humans too and they will eventually make mistakes, but multiple officials making multiple mistakes every matchweek starts to make fans wonder whether they are actually mistakes from incompetent people or malicious and purposeful bad decisions.

Instead of fans from other Premier League clubs clowning on the fans of the clubs who are effected by poor officiating, all the fans must come together for what’s best for the worlds game. Pressure must be put on PGMOL to change for the complete benefit of the fans and the clubs.

Sources:

  • skysports.com
  • theathletic.com
  • dailymail.co.uk
  • football.london
  • theguardian.com
  • thesun.ie
  • mirror.co.uk
  • express.co.uk
  • liverpoolfc.com
  • manutd.com
  • afcb.co.uk
  • sufc.co.uk
  • avfc.co.uk
  • premierleague.com
  • thefa.com
  • tottenhamhotspur.com
  • wolves.co.uk
  • bbc.com
  • espn.com
  • chelseafc.com
  • nottinghamforest.co.uk
  • arsenal.com
  • nufc.co.uk

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