Mike Dean was criticized by Paul Merson live on television for claiming that officials couldn’t halt Liverpool’s match with Tottenham “for the sake of it

After Mike Dean, a former Premier League referee, said the contentious match between Tottenham and Liverpool couldn’t be stopped for the sake of it, Paul Merson yelled at him on live television. VAR ruled that Luis Diaz’s strike was illegal. Darren England yelled “check complete” after confirming that the Colombian winger was onside because he had mistakenly thought the on-field ruling had been a goal.

The game resumed with a free kick to Spurs rather than a goal being declared. After Spurs’ 2-1 victory, the chiefs of the referees acknowledged that the decision to overturn the Colombian’s goal was “a significant human error.”

Merson suggested that the game ought to have been stopped to give Liverpool a deserving goal during a debate on Soccer Saturday. 

When asked about the future, Dean The question is, do you bring in former players? For me, no, as you can tell from what you (Merson) mentioned about resuming games just for the sake of it, I simply don’t think that if you go invite players in, half of them don’t know the rules of the game at all.