Referee, VAR taken off Prem duty after Onana penalty error

Simon Hooper and Michael Salisbury will not be included in the referee appointments for next weekend’s Premier League games after they failed to award a stoppage-time penalty to Wolverhampton Wanderers in Monday night’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Goalkeeper André Onana clattered into Wolves’ Sasa Kalajdzic in the sixth added minute at Old Trafford, but on-field referee Hooper did not award a penalty and the VAR, Salisbury, failed to intervene. Richard West, the assistant VAR for the match, will also not be selected.

Salisbury initiated a lengthy VAR check but cleared the incident as not a clear and obvious error.

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said afterwards that Jon Moss, the manager of the Select Group 1 officials who referee in the Premier League, had told him it was a mistake.

“I was told live that they didn’t think that it was a clear and obvious error,” O’Neil said. “But having spoken to Jonathan Moss, and fair play to him for coming straight out, he has apologised and said it was a blatant penalty that should have been given.

“I feel bad because he has come out honestly. I spent the afternoon with him, trying to understand the new guidelines and trying not to get myself booked with the new guidelines, which I failed to do.

“Fair play to Jon saying it was a clear and obvious error. He can’t believe the on-field referee didn’t give it and VAR didn’t intervene. That probably makes me feel even worse. Once you know you’re right, you feel worse leaving with nothing.”

Since Howard Webb took over as chief refereeing officer for refereeing in the Premier League the organisation has admitted errors and taken action against officials who make mistakes to show greater transparency.

It is the second time Salisbury has been stood down in recent months. In April, he was the VAR for the controversial game between Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion. PGMOL apologised after Kaoru Mitoma was denied a penalty after being caught by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, with Salisbury taken off duty for the following weekend and not selected as a VAR for the next 3½ weeks.