PGMOL reviews own review of Tarkowski tackle and now agrees with everyone else
PGMOL has reviewed its own review of James Tarkowski’s leg-breaking challenge on Alexis Mac Allister and now admits that it was worthy of inspection and ultimately a red card.
Diogo Jota scored the only goal of the game for Liverpool to move 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League table and bring Everton’s nine-game unbeaten run under David Moyes to an end in another controversial Merseyside derby.
Tarkowski, whose late, late equaliser in the return fixture in February resulted in four red cards after the final whistle, somehow avoided the same sanction on Wednesday despite Duncan bloody Ferguson joining everyone else in insisting the Everton skipper should have been given his marching orders.
Jamie Carragher hit out at the “shocking” decision by Sam Barrott – refereeing his first Merseyside derby – for only showing Tarkowski a yellow and VAR Paul Tierney for failing to recommend an on-field review.
It’s claimed Tierney – who is either a ‘cheat’ or just plain ‘incompetent’, according to the Mailbox – decided Barrott hadn’t made a ‘clear and obvious’ error after just ten seconds, which we would suggest is sufficient time in this instance if followed by a recommendation to Send The Horrible B*stard Off, but not given he decided to wave it away as ‘reckless’ but nothing more.
According to law 12, as explained on the Football Association’s website, ‘a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play’.
It continues: ‘Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.’
MORE ON THE TARKOWSKI INCIDENT ON F365
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It’s almost like the PGMOL had enlisted Tarkowski ahead of kick-off to give them the perfect challenge to illustrate a red card scenario for referee training purposes: “Just remember you’ve got to lunge with excessive force and endanger the opponent.”
And yet, straight after the game, PGMOL said nothing of the blatant error and simply explained Tierney’s decision.
Their statement read: ‘The referee’s call of yellow card for a reckless foul by Tarkowski was checked by the VAR, with contact on the follow through after Tarkowski had played the ball deemed to be reckless.’
Now a new statement has been released which a) stirs the controversy/bias/abuse/corruption pot unnecessarily and b) surely could have been said straight after the game if it was going to said at all, so ‘clear and obvious’ was the error.
‘PGMOL notes that Tarkowski initially played the ball but deems that his follow-through on Mac Allister met the threshold for serious foul play, and therefore was worthy of a red card.’
No f***ing sh*t, lads.
