LEE MASON has been stood down from VAR duty this weekend.
The official didn’t spot an offside in the build up to Brentford’s leveller at Arsenal on Saturday.
Mason currently only works on VAR after retiring as an on-pitch official.
But he has been stood down from his duties this weekend.
The 51-year-old was not included in the Premier League’s list of appointments for the upcoming round of fixtures.
Mason supposedly forgot to draw the lines to determine if Christian Norgaard was offside as he was looking at another incident in the build-up to Brentford’s leveller in the 1-1 draw.
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It left Ivan Toney to score what could be a killer equaliser to Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes come the end of the season.
The refereeing body, the PGMOL, wrote to Arsenal to apologise citing human error, and Howard Webb called an emergency meeting with all officials.
After the match, boss Mikel Arteta said: “I just looked back and it is offside.
“Have they explained why it wasn’t allowed? No. It is frustrating but they will probably give an explanation later in the week. Today we haven’t got one.
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“You have to apply certain principles in defending and you do that by sticking to the rules. Suddenly you change the rules and then you have to change your principles.
“So tell us before so then you don’t hold the line that high.
“Because you’re always going to have an advantage if you get blocked. You cannot block if you are offside.”
There was also controversy as Pervis Estupinian’s strike for Brighton was incorrectly ruled out for offside as VAR John Brooks made the decision based on the wrong Crystal Palace defender.
That led to Brooks being AXED from the VAR team for Liverpool’s 2-0 win against Everton and Wednesday’s showdown between Arsenal and Manchester City.
But Brooks will return this weekend as fourth official for Aston Villa vs Arsenal on Saturday.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
