Chris Kavanagh removed from Premier League officiating duties following FA Cup mistakes
Chris Kavanagh has not been assigned to officiate a Premier League match this weekend following a series of mistakes during the Aston Villa vs. Newcastle FA Cup match last Saturday.
Kavanagh, along with his assistants Gary Beswick and Nick Greenhalgh, faced significant criticism for their performance during the FA Cup fourth-round encounter at Villa Park, where they operated without VAR, as was the case for all matches in this round.
Sandro Tonali netted twice as Newcastle navigated a number of perplexing refereeing decisions by Kavanagh to secure a 3-1 victory over 10-man Villa in their FA Cup fourth-round match.
They failed to recognize that Tammy Abraham was offside for Villa’s first goal, overlooked a shin-high challenge by Villa full-back Lucas Digne on Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy that could have warranted a straight red card, and awarded a free-kick for a handball by Digne despite him being clearly inside the penalty area at that moment.
Beswick has been appointed as an assistant for the Nottingham Forest vs. Liverpool match on Sunday, but Kavanagh and Greenhalgh are not included.
Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) emphasizes the accountability of officials for their mistakes, which accounts for Kavanagh’s absence this weekend.
Nonetheless, he is well-respected, recently elevated to UEFA’s elite list of referees, and frequently officiates in the Champions League.
Earlier on Monday, Wayne Rooney expressed his belief that the mistakes made were indicative of an excessive dependence on VAR by officials.
Rooney characterized the handball decision as “one of the worst calls he had ever witnessed,” in his capacity as one of the BBC’s pundits for the live broadcast of the match on Saturday evening.
In a subsequent discussion on the Wayne Rooney Show podcast, he remarked: “I think there’s an over-reliance on VAR.
“And unfortunately, now the officials have become accustomed to that, and where they’ve been receiving assistance that has sometimes saved them, they are waiting for that to make the decision.
“Without VAR, they must make the call themselves, and they are likely used to keeping the flag down, which has impacted the decisions made yesterday.”
Former Premier League referee Graham Scott, who appeared as a guest on the podcast, stated that he did not believe it was fair to claim referees were relying on VAR.
“Obviously, I work closely with them and I know these individuals, and they are not like that,” he said.
“It’s not how they think, nor how their processes function. I spent half my career with VAR and half without it, the reverse being true, without it initially.
“And during my time in the Premier League, I frequently dropped into the Championship. So you’re in and out, in and out. And your processes essentially remain consistent.”
VAR will be implemented in the FA Cup starting from the fifth round.
Top-flight referees are strongly encouraged to trust their on-field judgments.
The Premier League has the lowest VAR intervention rate of any major European league and operates on the principle that unless a subjective decision is evidently and clearly incorrect, the referee’s on-field decision should prevail.
