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.
In October last year, Darren England was removed from officiating after a major error during Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur, where Luis Díaz had a legitimate goal ruled out for offside. PGMOL acknowledged it was a “clear and obvious factual error” that warranted a VAR review to award the goal. Liverpool deemed PGMOL’s explanation “unacceptable,” leading to England being sidelined from officiating Liverpool matches for the rest of the 2023/24 season, affecting him financially.
Nearly a year later, England is set to return to a Liverpool game as the fourth official for their match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Anthony Taylor as the referee. Adam Nunn and Gary Beswick will assist Taylor, while Michael Salisbury and Dan Robathan will oversee VAR duties.
The incident at Anfield last season generated significant controversy, prompting Liverpool to formally request the release of the VAR audio from the match. When the audio was made public, PGMOL acknowledged that their standards “fell short of expectations.”
In response, PGMOL committed to improving VAR performance through a new training program launched last season, focusing on best practices for VARs, AVARs, and Replay Operators. They emphasized their ongoing efforts to develop a dedicated pool of VAR specialists, despite having several FIFA-recognized officials.
