sport news Premier League clubs are baffled by refereeing reports and accuse officials of ... trends now
Premier League clubs are being left baffled by the conflicting refereeing reports landing in their inbox every week – because they are being told the VAR was right not to intervene even when the referee was wrong.
An evaluation known as the Key Match Incidents report is emailed to all 20 sides after each round of fixtures.
Set up by the Premier League, who co-own the PGMOL, it lists the major moments which occurred in every match alongside the verdict of a five-person KMI panel who assess whether the referee’s on-field decision was correct or incorrect.
They also determine whether the VAR was right or wrong in following up with an intervention or not.
Mail Sport was leaked several of this season’s KMI reports which ran the rule over incidents from penalties to red cards to disallowed goals in Premier League matches.
Premier League clubs are being left baffled by conflicting refereeing reports every week
Reports are telling clubs that VAR is sometimes correct not to intervene - even if the on-field decision is wrong
Yet there are clubs confused by some of the verdicts they are receiving, feeling that mixed messages are leaving them guessing what constitutes a ‘clear and obvious’ error.
One example was from Arsenal’s late 2-1 victory at home to Brentford earlier this month.
In the 62nd minute, Leandro Trossard claimed he was dragged down by Mads Roerslev while trying to get on the end of a cross by Martin Odegaard.
Referee Rob Jones failed to award a penalty, which was deemed ‘incorrect’ by the panel.
However, those same panelists decided it was ‘correct’ that VAR Paul Tierney did not intervene because it was ‘not a clear and obvious error’.
Another example was from Liverpool’s 4-1 win away at Brentford last month. Andy Robertson’s barge into the back of Ivan Toney in the 72nd minute saw the referee Michael Oliver fail to award a penalty.
That was deemed ‘incorrect’ by the panel, but they also concluded it was ‘correct’ that VAR David Coote did not intervene, again explaining that this error was not ‘clear and obvious’ as per the threshold.
There are further examples of referees being told they were wrong in real time and VARs told they were right not to intervene, such as when Brighton missed out on a penalty during their 5-0 win at Sheffield United after Kaoru Mitoma was shoved over by James McAtee in the box.
The KMI panel concluded that Michael Oliver was 'incorrect' to not award a penalty when Andy Robertson fouled Ivan Toney, but that VAR was 'correct' not to intervene
