David Coote has been taken off VAR duty for Liverpool’s Premier League match against Leicester City this weekend.
Jurgen Klopp’s side face the league-leaders at Anfield on Sunday, but the official who failed to send Jordan Pickford off for the challenge that damaged Virgil van Dijk’s ACL in the Merseyside derby and ruled the Dutchman out for most of the season, has been replaced by Andre Marriner.
i has been told that “the change has been made for operational reasons”, but the Premier League is yet to comment on the specific motivation behind re-assigning Coote to Manchester United’s game against West Brom.
Coote, who was the subject of a huge backlash from fans on social media over the Pickford decision, will be the referee for Saturday night’s fixture at Old Trafford.
Liverpool made a complaint to the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) in the wake of the 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park and asked for key VAR decisions, which included Jordan Henderson’s late goal being disallowed for a marginal offside, to be reviewed.
The governing body subsequently confirmed that no action would be taken against Pickford for his tackle because the officials, including Coote and the referee Michael Oliver, witnessed it at the time.
First, they deemed that Van Dijk could not be given a penalty because he was in an offside position and secondly, that Pickford did not deserve a red card.
The FA can only intervene in such cases when the circumstances are thought to be exceptional.
Strange . Why? https://t.co/QUN9QdvQwz
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) November 19, 2020
Those decisions did little to calm the fallout, with Coote on the receiving end of abuse from supporters online.
The decision has now been taken to remove him from the spotlight of the Liverpool fixture.
It is worth noting, though, that he has not been dropped altogether. Graham Scott, who made a number of errors in Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Brighton earlier this month, has not been assigned a fixture as referee since. He will be the fourth official when Everton travel to Craven Cottage to play Fulham on Sunday.
Scott’s errors of judgment were less serious, but they also prompted far less attention.
Analysis: A dangerous precedent?
Questions are rightly being asked over the decision to move Coote away from Stockley Park this weekend.
Whatever the official motivation behind it may be, the move risks sending a message that the bigger the backlash, the more likely clubs will be to avoid future officiating by individuals whom they feel have wronged them.
There used to be a rumour that Manchester United had positioned the referee’s car parking space far enough from Old Trafford that he would have to walk through swathes of fans after the game.
Any display of clubs trying to exert influence on the match officials shouldn’t be tolerated, but re-assigning Coote to another match appears to justify the backlash against him – even if it is meant as a protective measure.
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