The VAR assistant who was stood down following the controversial Tottenham vs Liverpool match will return to action this weekend for Manchester United’s Premier League trip to Sheffield United.
Daniel Cook, along with VAR Darren England, were stood down when Liverpool forward Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside in Tottenham’s 2-1 home win. Miscommunication between England and referee Simon Hooper saw Diaz’s goal being wrongly ruled out in what referees’ chief Howard Webb called ‘a clear error’.
The pair were not involved in the last round of top-flight fixtures before the international break. England will be the fourth official for Brentford vs Burnley while Cook will be one of the assistant referees for United’s game at Bramall Lane.
New VAR guidelines were introduced in the wake of the Diaz disallowed goal controversy and audio of the incident was later released. England incorrectly thought on-field officials had ruled Diaz to be onside, which meant when he told them ‘check complete’ they believed he had upheld their on-field decision and restarted play with a free-kick.
Once the game resumed, there was nothing the VARs could do to revisit the decision under existing protocols. Referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said it would develop a new VAR communication protocol in an effort to avoid similar mistakes being made in future.
PGMOL said the protocol would ‘enhance the clarity of communication between the referee and the VAR team in relation to on-field decisions’. VARs will now also confirm the outcome of the checking process with the assistant VAR before confirming the final decision to the on-field officials.
