VAR Officials England And Cook To Return To Duty

By Sedara Philip

VAR officials Darren England and Daniel Cook will return to Premier League duty this weekend following their error in last month’s fixture between Tottenham and Liverpool.

England and Cook were the VAR and VAR assistant respectively when Liverpool forward Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside in Tottenham’s 2-1 home win.

Both officials were stood down the following week, but England will be back as the fourth official for Brentford’s home game against Burnley on Saturday and Cook will return as assistant referee for Sheffield United’s match against Manchester United.

Miscommunication between VAR England and referee Simon Hooper led to Diaz’s goal being wrongly ruled out on September 30, with the incident later described by referees’ chief Howard Webb as “a clear error”.

Hooper is the designated VAR for Newcastle’s home game against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Michael Oliver will referee United’s visit to Bramall Lane on Saturday. He opted not to send off Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic for a challenge on Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard in the final round of fixtures before the international break, with Webb later admitting the Croatian midfielder was “fortunate” to stay on the pitch.