Referee Stuart Attwell has not been dropped from Premier League match duties this weekend, despite failing to award Brighton a penalty during their defeat to Tottenham on Saturday.
Kaoru Mitoma was fouled by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg during Brighton’s 2-1 loss at Spurs, but both Attwell and VAR official Michael Salisbury failed to award a penalty.
Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), spoke to Brighton over the weekend in the wake of the incident and acknowledged an error occurred.
Attwell will not be refereeing this weekend, but he will be on VAR duty for Wolves' match at home to Brentford on Saturday. He will also be the fourth official for West Ham v Arsenal on Sunday.
The VAR official from Tottenham’s win over Brighton, Salisbury, has however been removed from this weekend’s games.
There is also no place for assistant referee Constantine Hatzidakis, who has been stood down after appearing to thrust his elbow into the face of the Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson during Sunday’s game at Anfield with Arsenal.
The incident, which occurred at half-time of Sunday’s 2-2 draw, is being investigated the Football Association and they will interview all parties involved.
While that is taking place the PGMOL, the body in charge of referees, will not consider Hatzidakis for matches and he was on Tuesday left off the list of officials tasked with Premier League games this weekend.
The incident between Hatzidakis and Robertson has placed more scrutiny on the relationship between players and officials.
Robertson was approaching Hatzidakis at half-time on Sunday and appeared to be caught on the chin by the assistant referee’s elbow after grabbing him.
The Liverpool left-back was incensed by the flashpoint and had to be held back by his team-mates. Referee Paul Tierney booked him.
