EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Video Assistant Referee, Mike Dean, has admitted he should have recommended referee Anthony Taylor to review Cristian Romero’s hair pull on Marc Cucurella for a possible red card in Tottenham’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea.
Dean, who was the VAR official for the match at Stamford Bridge, decided against any punishment at the time.
Harry Kane headed in from the resulting corner to equalize in stoppage time.
In his Daily Mail column, Dean wrote:
“No referee wants to be driving home from a game knowing they should have made a different call. Sometimes in hindsight, you realise you could have acted differently.
“For the second goal by Harry Kane, I asked referee Anthony Taylor to wait while I looked at the incident involving Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella.
“I could not award a free-kick as VAR, but I could recommend to Taylor that he visit the referee review area to consider a possible red card. In the few seconds, I had to study Romero pulling Cucurella’s hair, I didn’t deem it a violent act.
“I’ve since studied the footage, spoken to other referees and, upon reflection, I should have asked Taylor to visit his pitch-side monitor to take a look for himself.
The referee on the field always has the final say.
“It goes to show that no matter how experienced you are, and I’ve spent more than two decades as a Premier League official, you are always learning.
“It’s disappointing for me as this was one incident in an otherwise very good weekend from our officials.”
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