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Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher is back to assess the controversial decisions from around the Premier League.
Dermot joined Rob Wotton on Sky Sports News to review the big decisions of the weekend – and insisted David Coote was right to overturn West Brom’s penalty against Manchester United.
Man Utd 1-0 West Brom
3:05 INCIDENT: David Coote awards West Brom a penalty after adjudging Bruno Fernandes to have brought down Conor Gallagher – but overturns his decision after watching the incident back at the pitchside monitor on the advice of VAR. Was it a clear and obvious error?
VERDICT: “I don’t think it was a penalty. Fernandes gets the ball. There is contact, there’s no doubt, but l don’t think there’s contact that would put Conor Gallagher down like that.”
“As regards clear and obvious, if the referee on VAR doesn’t think it is a penalty, it’s clear and obvious to him, then that’s the difficulty in defining it as clear and obvious. I think it’s very difficult to say to a guy ‘yes, give a penalty’ when you are convinced it’s not.”
Asked to categorically state that Fernandes touched the ball first in his tackle, Gallagher replied: “That doesn’t matter.”
Upon Wotton’s suggestion that it does, given that the basis for reversing the decision had to be a ‘clear and obvious’ error, the former referee added: “But even if he does get a stud on the ball, it doesn’t preclude giving a penalty if he thinks it is a foul. The fact you get a touch on the ball doesn’t negate further action.
“For me, I think he does get a touch on the ball and there is contact, but because there is contact doesn’t necessarily mean it is a foul. I don’t think there is enough contact to give a penalty.”
More to follow.
