Who are referees Darren England and Dan Cook and why were they stood down?
REFEREE Darren England and assistant Dan Cook were stood down from duty following Tottenham’s fixture against Liverpool.
Here we take a look inside the life’s of England and Cook and why they were stood down.
GettyReferee Darren England pictured during a Premier League match between Manchester City and Leicester City[/caption]
Who are Darren England and Dan Cook?
Darren England is a Premier League football referee.
In December 2021, the PGMOL announced that England had been added to the 2022 FIFA list of International Match Officials.
Prior to this, the sportsman had been a Premier League assistant referee between 2012 and 2015, before becoming a Select Group 2 referee in 2017.
Dan Cook is a FIFA and Premier League assistant referee.
Why were the referees stood down?
Darren England and Dan Cook were responsible for the VAR blunder during Tottenham’s win over Liverpool – after failing to tell referee Simon Hooper to overturn the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside.
Diaz thought he’d put the visitors in the lead in the 34th minute with a nifty finish just inside the 18-yard box.
But on-the-field ref Simon Hooper and VAR official England ruled out the goal – despite replays clearly showing Diaz was onside.
Spurs quickly restarted the match, with VAR protocols preventing the error from being corrected.
Following this, Referees’ body PGMOL issued a statement claiming a “significant human error” had resulted in the blunder.
They have since released audio detailing what went wrong.
They also took action and removed England from VAR duty for Nottingham Forest’s 1-1 draw with Brentford.
A statement read: “PGMOL can confirm the following match official appointment changes for the remaining fixtures in match round 7 in the Premier League.
“Darren England, VAR on the Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool fixture, and Dan Cook, AVAR on the same game, have been replaced for the Nottingham Forest v Brentford and Fulham v Chelsea matches today and tomorrow night respectively.
“Craig Pawson will now assume England’s duties as fourth official at the City Ground while Eddie Smart will take over from Cook as assistant referee at Craven Cottage.”
The referee will now sit out of the weekend’s fixtures along with Cook.
Following the fiasco, Jurgen Klopp has now called for Tottenham vs Liverpool to be replayed.
He said: “The audio didn’t change it at all. I wasn’t interested in why things happened. I saw the outcome, I saw a goal, we scored.
“It’s important we really deal with it in a proper way. I mean all of the people involved, the referee, linesman, fourth official and VAR – they didn’t do it on purpose. Yes it was a mistake, an obvious mistake.
“I say this not as manager of Liverpool but as a football person – I think the only outcome should be a replay. Probably will not happen.”
What is VAR?
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has become commonplace in the world of football.
Instead of just one person, a team of three people work together to review decisions made by the main referee.
The team is made up of a current or former referee, their assistant, and a replay operator, who watch video footage of the relevant occurrences.
The ref can request a review, or the video assistant will let the on-pitch referee know that a decision needs to be analysed.
VAR can be called upon for four key on-field incidents:
Awarding goals
Penalty decisions
Red card decisions
Cases of mistaken identity
The VAR will relay information on calls and at times the on-pitch official might need to go and take a look at the action himself from a screen installed in the stadium.
