Overview
- Chris Kavanagh and assistant Nick Greenhalgh were removed from this weekend’s Premier League appointments following errors in Aston Villa’s 3-1 loss to Newcastle in the FA Cup.
- Key incidents included an unflagged offside for Tammy Abraham, a shin-high challenge by Lucas Digne on Jacob Murphy, a possible offside on Dan Burn, and a Digne handball wrongly penalised outside the box.
- VAR was not in operation for the fourth round under the FA’s policy that reserves video review for the competition from the fifth round onward.
- PGMOL chief Howard Webb plans a face-to-face review with Kavanagh later this week, with the meeting delayed while Webb is out of the country.
- Criticism of the officiating has renewed debate over referees’ reliance on VAR and prompted suggestions such as a portable ‘VAR Lite’ for earlier rounds.