New VAR guidelines introduced in the wake of the controversy involving Liverpool will be in use in the Premier League this weekend. Miscommunication between VAR Darren England and referee Simon Hooper led to a Luis Diaz goal for Liverpool being wrongly disallowed for offside at Tottenham last Saturday. Audio of the incident was released on Tuesday, with referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) saying it would develop a new VAR communication protocol in an effort to avoid similar mistakes being made in future. The PA news agency understands that protocol will now be in force right away. PGMOL said the protocol would “enhance the clarity of communication between the referee and the VAR team in relation to on-field decisions”. VARs will now also confirm the outcome of the checking process with the assistant VAR before confirming the final decision to the on-field officials. England mistakenly thought the on-field officials had ruled Diaz to be onside, which meant that when he told them ‘check complete’ they believed he had upheld their on-field decision and restarted play with a free-kick. Once play had restarted, there was nothing the VARs could do to revisit the decision under existing protocols. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp called for the match to be replayed on Wednesday, something the Premier League is understood not to be prepared to consider. The league did release a statement on Tuesday, though, saying the Diaz incident had highlighted “systemic weaknesses” in the VAR process and said a wider review would take place “to seek consistently higher standards of VAR performance”. PGMOL and the Football Association will also review the policy allowing English officials to cover domestic league matches overseas. England and his assistant Daniel Cook had been part of a team of officials who had taken charge of a match in the United Arab Emirates on September 28, arriving back in the UK the following morning. Read More Going through or going home? – Ireland v Scotland talking points Jonny May determined to sign off England career in blaze of glory at World Cup Jurgen Klopp: We haven’t looked for Alexis Mac Allister’s best position yet Willie Peters wants Hull KR to become established top-four Super League club James Lowe insists Ireland are far from ‘invincible’ ahead of Scotland showdown Wigan using Challenge Cup ‘heartbreak’ as motivation ahead of Hull KR play-off

Brentford are the only Premier League team to have made the top 10 in a report assessing the country’s most sustainably-run clubs in the top four professional divisions. The Bees are the sole top-flight representatives among the best performers in the Fair Game Index published on Monday. This Index looks at all 92 clubs who were in the Premier League and the EFL last season, rating the performance of each on a weighted scoring system based on financial sustainability, governance, fan engagement and equality standards. Fair Game, a group of clubs and industry experts which campaigns for football reform, believes clubs’ performance against sustainability criteria should be used to determine how the bulk of the centrally-distributed broadcast revenue is allocated. League Two club AFC Wimbledon finished top in the Index. The Dons scored well across the board, underpinned by a firm commitment to never put the club’s financial status at risk. The club aim to always stay well below UEFA’s recommended wage-to-turnover ratio of 70 per cent, nurture homegrown talent and engage with the local community. Newly promoted League One team Carlisle are second, with Cambridge in third. No club who featured in the Championship last season made the top 10, with fourth-placed Plymouth promoted into the second tier at the end of last season. Brentford finished in 10th overall. Cambridge came top on governance in the Index, Lincoln led the way on equality standards and Exeter were first on fan engagement. Three of the six lowest-ranked clubs in the Index are Championship sides – Cardiff, Middlesbrough and League One play-off winners Sheffield Wednesday, while Premier League side Nottingham Forest had the lowest rating of all. Despite Forest being bottom, Premier League clubs had the highest average Index score – 50.0 – driven primarily by revenue being such a big factor in the financial sustainability, but were the worst performing on average for fan engagement. Championship clubs had the lowest average Index score – 38.1 – with clubs often spending beyond their means to either chase the Premier League dream or avoid the drop-off in income that follows relegation to League One. Fair Game has lobbied the football authorities to make clubs’ sustainability central to how much funding they receive, as the Premier League, EFL and the Football Association continue their talks on a ‘New Deal For Football’. Should they be unable to reach an agreement, the Government has said the new independent regulator for English football (IREF) should have backstop powers to impose a settlement via arbitration. Fair Game, which has consistently called for independent regulation, is also lobbying to ensure any backstop settlement includes consideration of how sustainable clubs are. Currently Fair Game says 12 per cent of the Premier League’s annual television income is distributed to the EFL and the wider pyramid. It says this should increase to 25 per cent, and also favours the introduction of a 10 per cent transfer levy on deals involving top-flight clubs, and deals between top-flight clubs and overseas teams. The fan-led review, published in 2021, called for a levy to be brought in but the proposal was not included in the Government’s white paper on football governance published earlier this year. Fair Game has also launched a tool allowing users to calculate how much clubs would earn based on their Fair Game Index score with the distribution percentages as they are now, and how that would change if the percentage increased and a transfer levy was introduced. Fair Game found 92 per cent of clubs outside the Premier League would be better off under its distribution model than the one currently in operation. Fair Game’s chief executive Niall Couper added: “The Fair Game Index paints a realistic picture of what our game could look like, a future where football chooses to reward well-run clubs. “Fair Game are working hard with communities, experts, football interest groups, fans, clubs and politicians to transform this picture into reality. “For the first time, the building blocks are in place.”

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James McAtee’s brace inspired dominant England Under-21s to a routine 3-0 win in Serbia. The Manchester City midfielder, on loan at Sheffield United, scored his first goals for the Young Lions. Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott added a third early in the second half as England saw out their Euro 2025 qualifier on Saturday with minimum fuss, shrugging off last month’s rare defeat to Ukraine. Lee Carsley’s side remain second, three points behind leaders Ukraine in Group F after their 4-0 win over Luxembourg on Friday. England thumped Serbia 9-1 at the City Ground last month and were dominant from the start in Backa Topola. It took just five minutes for the Young Lions to open the scoring when McAtee collected the ball on the edge of the area and his strike deflected off Mihajlo Ilic to loop over Veljko Ilic in goal. Four minutes later Liam Delap came close to doubling the lead when he glanced Noni Madueke’s cross just wide. But it was 2-0 after 19 minutes when McAtee received Hayden Hackney’s pass 20 yards out and drilled in, although Ilic should have done better. England dominated the rest of the half without adding to their advantage but took just nine minutes of the second half to make it 3-0. Elliott scored twice in the rout in Nottingham and got in on the act when he drilled into the bottom corner from 25 yards. Striker Jay Stansfield, making his debut after a late call this week, hit the woodwork after a neat turn and strike with 13 minutes left and also went close late on. Stansfield, on loan at Birmingham from Fulham, was denied a debut goal with three minutes remaining when he latched onto Madueke’s pass but saw his shot blocked. Read More A look at the data behind Virat Kohli’s record 50 ODI centuries Steve Clarke wants return to winning ways – Scotland v Norway talking points Steve Clarke not concerned over which pot Scotland are in for Euro 2024 draw

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2023--

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