Premier League has seen four VAR errors already, admits referees’ chief Mike Riley

Manchester City, West Ham, Watford and Bournemouth have been on wrong end of officiating mistakes so far

Referees’ chief Mike Riley has admitted that VAR has made four mistakes in the Premier League so far this season.

Former referee Riley, who is managing director of the officials body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) and responsible for the use of VAR in England, was speaking at the Premier League shareholders’ meeting in London on Thursday when he identified the incidents.

Riley highlighted two penalties that should have been awarded to Manchester City and West Ham respectively, and acknowledged that a Newcastle goal should have been given offside. He also told Premier League chairmen that a red card should have been shown during Bournemouth's match against Leicester.

The decision not to award City a penalty when David Silva was tripped in the box by Bournemouth midfielder Jefferson Lerma on August 25th was judged to be an error, as was the failure to give a spot-kick to Hammers forward Sebastien Haller after he was fouled by Norwich’s Tom Trybull on August 31st.

On the same day, Fabian Schar’s goal for Newcastle against Watford should have been ruled out for a handball by Isaac Hayden in the build-up, and Leicester midfielder Youri Tielemans should have been sent off after a challenge on Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson.

Riley told Sky Sports News that in the Silva, Haller and Tielemans incidents, it was indicative of the high bar the Premier League has set for overturning the decisions of on-field referees, but that he felt the “clear and obvious” bar had been reached in each of these cases.

“If you look at the four match rounds, 227 incidents have been checked,” he said.

“Out of that we’ve changed six decisions – we think we should have changed 10 in total.

“That gives you the scale of where VAR can help and add value to the game, but it also demonstrates that this is still about refereeing a game of Premier League football on the pitch.”

Additional reporting by PA