Two referees involved in the ongoing saga involving Liverpool's wrongly overruled goal against Tottenham have been revealed to have officiated in a UAE league match just hours before making a significant error which cost the Reds against Spurs
More controversy has arisen from the match between Tottenham and Liverpool, as it has been noted that the referees involved in making a calamitous error during the fixture had been serving as referees in the United Arab Emirates just hours before the game.
VAR referees involved in significant error during Tottenham vs Liverpool
Both Darren England and Dan Cook were removed from upcoming games in the Premier League after their involvement in ruling out a legitimate goal for Liverpool's Luis Diaz against Tottenham, and a new possible reason for their error in judgement has been revealed.
Diaz was played through on goal by Mohamed Salah and scored what should have been a goal to put Liverpool in the lead, but the Colombian was flagged for offside, leading to a VAR check.
England and Cook were in charge of VAR duties and erroneously upheld the on-field decision because they thought the goal had been given, not struck off.
The pair have faced growing backlash for the call, with PGMOL having to apologise on their behalf for essentially costing Liverpool a point against Tottenham.
Offending officials involved in UAE match before Premier League fixture
It has now been revealed that both officials were involved in refereeing a match in the UAE involving Sharjah and Al Ain on Thursday night before making a 16-hour round trip to London on Friday to take part in the Tottenham versus Liverpool fixture on Saturday.
Many have suggested that fatigue from the lucrative trip to the Gulf state could have played a role in the erroneous call during the Liverpool fixture, but the members of the Premier League's refereeing body, PGMOL, have debunked this, claiming it is not unusual for referees to make such long trips following Europa League matches as well.
It is believed that each official could receive up to $3,000 per match in UAE and Saudi Arabia, making such trips almost impossible to turn down for most.
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