VAR
officials at Stockley Park have admitted they made a mistake over the
decision to not send off Tottenham's Giovani Lo Celso in the 2-1 defeat to
Chelsea.
The Spurs midfielder avoided either a red or a yellow card after catching
Cesar Azpilicueta on the shin with his studs, appearing to go over the top
of the ball when making the challenge.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have attributed the
decision to human error by video officials. David Coote was the VAR on duty
at Stockley Park for the game.
Lo Celso picked up a yellow for a challenge on Mason Mount in the 82nd
minute.
Chelsea won the game thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso,
with Antonio Rudiger scoring an own goal to give Spurs a late consolation.
It is not expected that Lo Celso will face retrospective action for the
challenge despite the admission of the error.
Under PGMOL rules, retrospective disciplinary action is reserved for
incidents "not captured by the match officials or VAR".
Azpilicueta: It was a clear stamp
Azpilicueta was surprised the challenge from Lo Celso did not even yield a
yellow card because he felt a "clear stamp on his shin".
"I'm not a player that likes to be on the floor because I'm tough but it was
not my fault because it was a clear stamp on my shin, I felt it straight
away," Azpilicueta said after the match.
"I was surprised it was not a red card, not even a yellow card. Obviously
everybody makes mistakes but when you have a lot of replays it could be
easier."
Sky Sports pundit Matt Le Tissier described the decision as a "joke" on
Soccer Saturday.
"It's an absolute joke. He's stamped on him with no intention of playing the
ball," he said.
"He could quite easily have snapped his shin. That's why VAR was brought in
and that's absolutely shocking. No excuse, no defence for that whatsoever."
And fellow Sky Sports pundit Sue Smith added: "It's an awful challenge. In
my opinion he has to go for this. It's late, it's high. He could break his
leg here. Le Celso is very lucky for that."
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