PGMOL make huge decision on official who was 'banned' from officiating Liverpool matches last season

The referee who was removed from officiating Liverpool games last season will be involved in a game involving the Reds for the first time in almost a year on Saturday.

Back in October last year, Darren England was removed from duty following a "significant" human error during Liverpool's 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Luis Díaz had a goal chalked off for offside during the Premier League clash in North London, although replays clearly indicated he was onside.

A day later and PGMOL– the body responsible for referees in the Premier League – admitted it was a "clear and obvious factual error" and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention.

Liverpool released a statement saying the explanation from PGMOL was "unacceptable" and England, who was the video assistant referee that day, was removed from officiating duties.

In fact, he was axed from officiating Liverpool for the rest of the 2023/24 campaign, with The Telegraph claiming that England's mistake would affect him financially.

But now, almost a year after the much-talked-about incident, the 38-year-old will finally be involved in a Liverpool game when they face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.

England has been named as a fourth official for the Premier League fixture, whilst Anthony Taylor will referee the game at Molineux.

Adam Nunn and Gary Beswick will serve as Taylor's assistants, with Michael Salisbury and Dan Robathan being placed in charge of VAR.

Image credit: Getty

The incident at Anfield last season made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Liverpool even submitted a formal request to PGMOL to release the VAR audio from the match.

And a short time later, the audio was officially released to the public alongside a statement where PGMOL recognised that standards "fell short of expectations."

PGMOL said they were committed to enhancing VAR performance through a new training programme which started last season and focuses on process and best practice for all VARs, AVARs and Replay Operators in their specific roles.

They added: "While we have a number of FIFA-recognised VARs, work is ongoing to create a dedicated pool of VAR specialists."

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