When Mike Dean criticized former players’ knowledge of the game on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday show, Paul Merson became enraged, escalating the debate over VAR and refereeing standards.
On Saturday, a heated argument between Mike Dean and Paul Merson was shown live on Sky Sports Soccer.
When asked how officiating may be improved in light of the uproar over the VAR mishap at Tottenham vs. Liverpool last week, presenter Simon Thomas turned to Dean, a former Premier League official.
Before making fun of former players’ understanding of the Laws of the Game, Dean described the “ongoing process” of better-trained referees—including Merson, who was present as a pundit. Dean advised against putting former athletes in charge of the technology because they “don’t know the law.
You don’t understand the law, Dean stated repeatedly, to which Merson screamed, “Come on. No one will pass away! So quit playing now! All of you are terrified, thinking, “Oh my God, I’m going to get in trouble.”
Before quickly apologizing to the sound crew for the pundit’s outburst, Thomas encouraged Merson to cool out. The heated discussion is only the most recent one since VAR wrongly disallowed Liverpool’s early goal against Spurs.
Before releasing audio of the perplexing ruling, the arbitrator organization PGMOL acknowledged that a “significant human error” had been done on their part. The on-field referee’s erroneous judgment to rule the goal out with offside was unintentionally locked in when the VAR official shouted “check complete,” displaying astounding levels of uncertainty.
As a result of the excerpt, incensed football fans have claimed that the match should have been stopped and restarted as soon as the VAR authorities realized their error, which would have violated the regulations as they currently stand.
