PGMOL have released a statement following the controversial moments in last night’s big Premier League game between Liverpool and Everton.
Everton’s James Tarkowski is at the centre of a big controversy after his crunching tackle on Liverpool’s Alexis MacAllister in the Merseyside derby last night. The challenge came early in the game, with Tarkowski catching MacAllister high on the leg after getting a touch on the ball. The referee showed a yellow. VAR didn’t intervene, which is why it was brought in in the first place.
Now, PGMOL has admitted they messed up. They say Tarkowski should have been sent off for serious foul play. A pitchside review? That should have happened too. But it didn’t.
Fans and pundits have been fuming ever since. Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, and plenty of others called it a shocking decision. Some even said it could have been a leg-breaker. The kind of tackle that changes games, and seasons.
Despite all the drama, Liverpool kept their heads. Diogo Jota’s goal secured a 1-0 win, keeping them at the top of the Premier League.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot stayed out of the debate during his post-match interview and concentrated on talking about the positive performance and the 3 points. He let others do the talking on the incident while his team kept winning. With a 12-point lead at the top, he has bigger things to focus on and it seems very unlikely that Liverpool will throw away this title lead now.
This whole mess has reignited debates about refereeing standards and VAR. Fans want consistency. Players want protection. Right now, neither seems guaranteed and it is constantly on the back pages of newspapers when the whole point of it was to stop controversies like this. With semi-automated VAR coming in next season, it will be interesting to see how the debate goes on.