Assistant referee Constantine Hatzidakis has been stood down from officiating matches while the Football Association looks into his clash with Liverpool defender Andy Robertson.
The official appeared to raise his arm when colliding with Robertson during Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Arsenal in the Premier League at Anfield.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), which oversees referees and assistants, said Hatzidakis had been taken off duty for now.
"PGMOL will not be appointing Constantine Hatzidakis to fixtures in any of the competitions it serves whilst the FA investigates the incident involving the assistant referee and Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson at Anfield," the PGMOL said.
Cameras showed Robertson walking towards Hatzidakis at half-time to protest a decision and reaching out to him, with the official seemingly throwing up his arm and making contact with the Scotland captain, who gesticulated that he had been hit by the official.
Robertson was led away by teammates and received a yellow card.
"I know it happened but I didn't watch it," Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said after the match.
"If it happened the pictures will speak for themselves."
Robertson's clash with Hatzidakis is the third in the Premier League in recent months.
Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrović and Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes both pushed referees this season, with Mitrović banned for eight games and Fernandes avoiding a sanction.
Ref Support UK, a non-profit that advocates for match officials, said while "the official appears to have been out of order" and should be banned, administrators needed to look at the way referees are treated by players.
"The learnings here are: what was a player doing going over and manhandling a match official yet again?" Ref Support chief executive Martin Cassidy told The Mirror.
"Address the result of it, but you have to address the cause of it too.
"What caused that elbow to hit him in the face? He grabbed a match official. What happened with Mitrović? He grabbed a match official. What happened with Fernandes? He touched a match official.
"Don't touch a match official. It's not rocket science."
AP/ABC
