Darren England, the man behind the officiating blunder which saw Luis Diaz’s goal incorrectly ruled out for offside yesterday, was working in the United Arab Emirates just 48 hours before Liverpool’s clash with Spurs, The Times has reported.
England was acting as VAR for yesterday’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and failed to intervene when our No. 7 was adjudged to have been offside despite replays clearly showing he was on.
The 37-year-old, alongside assistant VAR Dan Cook and fourth official Michael Oliver, were part of the officiating team for Thursday night’s clash between Sharjah and Al Ain in the UAE Pro League.
Howard Webb, head of the PMGOL, gave the go ahead for the English officials to head to the Middle East despite being aware that they were on duty for the visit of Jurgen Klopp’s side to the capital yesterday tea time.
There are now serious questions being asked and concern about whether fatigue played a role in the dreadful performance of the officials.
Premier League officials are regularly involved in midweek fixtures in European competitions (UCL, UEL or UECL) but will then be appointed for games on Sunday, rather than Saturday.
It’s believed that Webb has already contacted Liverpool to apologise for the error and the PGMOL have released a statement explaining that a review of the incident will be completed.
Fatigue? They were invited by the Man City owners, days before a clutch game involving their biggest threat for the title?
They would have flown by private jet and been treated like kings. No question of fatigue. Maybe a question of corruption.