More VAR disapproval as Nottingham Forest and Brentford both berate decisions

Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper said officials had failed to get the key decisions right once again on Sunday, as criticism of referees’ body PGMOL following a succession of controversial calls showed no signs of tapering off.

VAR officials Darren England and Dan Cook were replaced for two games after Liverpool wrongly had a goal disallowed in their 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, with PGMOL saying the decision was a result of “a significant error”.

Liverpool said “sporting integrity has been undermined” by the VAR mistake.

With officials under even more scrutiny on Sunday, Cooper was upset with the decision to send Moussa Niakhate off in their 1-1 draw with Brentford.

“With it being the only Premier League game of the day, the PGMOL needed a real clean day and unfortunately they have got the opposite,” said Cooper.

“We all want referees to be at the right level and help them but they have to help themselves. The last thing they needed was talking points about refereeing decisions.”

Brentford manager Thomas Frank was unhappy his side’s penalty claims were not backed up by VAR, particularly an incident in the second half when Forest goalkeeper Matt Turner escaped punishment for a challenge on forward Yoane Wissa.

“The two handballs, some managers would claim them as penalties, I won’t, but I would really hate it if they were given against me,” he said.

“The Wissa one is a clear penalty though. You can’t go through the man, so unfortunately that’s a mistake from VAR.”

Reuters