Chris Kavanagh Omitted from Premier League Refereeing Duties After Controversial FA Cup Performance

omidbasir- Chris Kavanagh will not officiate any Premier League matches this weekend due to significant criticism regarding his performance during the FA Cup tie between Aston Villa and Newcastle last Saturday.

Kavanagh, along with his assistants Gary Beswick and Nick Greenhalgh, faced backlash for their officiating during the fourth-round match at Villa Park, where they operated without Video Assistant Referee (VAR), as was standard for all matches in that round.

Newcastle triumphed over Aston Villa with a score of 3-1, despite multiple contentious decisions made by Kavanagh. Notably, they failed to recognize that Tammy Abraham was offside for Villa’s opening goal and overlooked a potential red-card offense when Villa’s Lucas Digne tackled Jacob Murphy. Additionally, a free-kick was awarded for a handball by Digne, despite the incident occurring clearly within the penalty area.

While Beswick has been assigned as an assistant for the Nottingham Forest vs. Liverpool match on Sunday, Kavanagh and Greenhalgh have not been included in this weekend’s officiating roster.

The Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) emphasize the importance of accountability among referees, which has influenced Kavanagh’s exclusion from this weekend’s games. Nonetheless, he remains a respected official, having recently been promoted to UEFA’s elite refereeing list and frequently officiating in the Champions League.

In a media appearance, former player Wayne Rooney expressed that the errors highlighted a concerning dependency on VAR among officials. Rooney remarked on the podcast “The Wayne Rooney Show” that he believed the handball decision was “one of the worst decisions he had ever seen,” attributing the officials’ struggles to a lack of VAR support.

Former Premier League referee Graham Scott, also a podcast guest, defended the officials, asserting that they do not rely on VAR as a crutch. He noted his extensive experience both with and without VAR and maintained that referees’ decision-making processes remain consistent regardless of the technology.

Looking ahead, VAR will be implemented in the FA Cup starting from the fifth round. Premier League referees are encouraged to trust their on-field decisions, with the league having the lowest VAR intervention rate among major European competitions. The prevailing principle is that unless a subjective decision is deemed clearly and obviously incorrect, the on-field referee’s judgment should prevail.