Why referee Michael Oliver will only be on VAR duty this weekend
Since he got into trouble in the North London Derby, referee Michael Oliver will be on VAR duty for this weekend’s Premier League games.
Oliver, one of the most famous referees in the league, will be at Stockley Park on Sunday for Brighton’s game against Aston Villa. He has been in charge of 22 games this season.
The Premier League announced the judging team for the game. Robert Jones will be in charge, with Ian Hussin and Wade Smith following him.
Stuart Atwell will be the fourth judge. He was involved in his own VAR situation after Nottingham Forest accused him of being a Luton fan after a number of tense moments in their 2-0 loss to Everton.
Oliver will have help from Dan Cook on VAR. Cook was reportedly fired after he made a big mistake that disallowed Liverpool’s first goal in their 2-1 loss to Tottenham earlier this season.
Oliver missed a clear kick from Declan Rice that hit Ben Davies, but he changed his mind after looking at the video.
Oliver missed a clear kick from Declan Rice that hit Ben Davies, but he changed his mind after looking at the video.
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Oliver got in trouble this past weekend when he missed a clear penalty kick from Declan Rice on Ben Davies in the penalty area. At first, he waved play on, but his VAR officials told him to look at the monitor.
Oli quickly realised he had made a mistake before pointing to the spot, so the VAR check was very short.
Even though Son Heung-min scored the spot, Spurs lost 3-2 to their fierce rivals because they left it too late to save the game.
After the most recent decisions were made, some people noticed that Oliver had not been put in charge of any of the upcoming Premier League games.
Later, it came out that he is only working as a VAR official for Sunday’s game at the Amex because he is the referee for Thursday’s UEFA Conference League semi-final match between Fiorentina and Club Brugge.
Because of that Conference League game in Italy, he only has two days to get ready for Brighton vs. Aston Villa, so he has been put in the VAR lab.
Oliver has been criticised in the past for not giving Liverpool a penalty in the last few minutes of their March title match against Man City.
There was a high tackle on Alexis MacAllister by Jeremy Doku at Anfield in extra time that the Reds thought should have led to a penalty.
Referee Michael Oliver chose to let the game go on, and VAR agreed with the on-field ruling as the game came to a close.
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