Paul Merson screams at Mike Dean in furious Sky Sports debate over VAR farce
Paul Merson clashed with former Premier League referee Mike Dean during a heated argument about VAR on Soccer Saturday.
VAR is back on the agenda as a major topic of discussion following the horrendous error to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool in the 2-1 defeat by Tottenham last weekend. VAR Darren England failed to overturn the incorrect on-field decision to rule out Diaz’s goal, forcing the PGMOL to apologise and release the audio.
In the audio England could be heard repeatedly saying “I can’t do anything” following his error because referee Michael Hooper had already restarted the game. Former Arsenal midfielder Merson believes that England should have been able to intervene once he’d discovered his error.
But in an increasingly fraught conversation, Dean explained from his perspective why the officials were powerless once they had made the mistake. Here is how the argument developed.
Dean : “The training is an on-going process. They always have stuff emailed through and things to go through – certain clips where they have to press the button for onside or offside. They do that and it goes through to the PGMOL. So they’re always doing online training.
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“They’ve been in this week again, I know, trying to get the communication better. But I don’t know the way forward. Do you get ex-players in? For me, no, because I just don’t think… if you get players in, half of them don’t know the laws of the game full-stop, as you can tell by what you’ve just said about restarting games for the sake of it…”
Mike Dean defended the VAR officials for their decision (Sky Sports)Merson : “For the sake of it?! FOR THE SAKE OF IT?!”
Dean : “You don’t know the law!”
Merson : “What do you mean the sake of it? You’re playing Liverpool against Tottenham! One of the biggest games and you’re saying for the sake of it!”
Dean : “But you don’t know the law!”
Merson : “Come on! There is no law! No one is going to die! STOP THE GAME! Nothing’s going to happen! You’re all scared! You’re all like ‘Oh my God, we’re all going to get in trouble’. Stop the game. Stop the game and then take the circumstances.”
Simon Thomas : “Merse, calm down, calm down.”
Merson : “Seriously, it’s typical [of someone who’s] not played the game.”
Dean : “It’s the law! That is the law and you cannot change the law.”
Merson : “Because you know the rules, it's different.”
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Dean : “It’s simple as. It’s black and white: you can’t change the law. I’m staying nice and calm here because I know you can’t change the law. And if he wants to blow up like a bottle of pop that’s fine by me.”
Thomas : “I just want to offer a few apologies to the sound department after that outburst from Paul Merson. Passions are running high.”
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