Leicester in VAR storm amid claims Crystal Palace goal was incorrectly given

The first VAR storm of the season is brewing, with Leicester City having made a direct request of the referees’ body PGMOL to investigate whether the process that saw Crystal Palace’s first goal on Saturday ruled onside was correct.

It is understood that referee officials’ from PGMOL ([Professional Game Match Officials Limited) met with Leicester on Monday to discuss the Jean-Philippe Mateta goal in the 47th minute that was originally flagged offside – an on-field decision subsequently overturned by the VAR Andy Madley.

The question PGMOL will now have to answer is whether the process was followed correctly.

Leicester’s case is understood to be that when Tyrick Mitchell crossed the ball to Mateta, the latter was offside – but the VAR process failed to identify the correct moment the ball was played.

The meeting between referees’ body PGMOL and Leicester was led by Martin Atkinson and not attended by Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer. Webb is understood to have been preparing for his ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’ show in which he discusses recent contentious VAR decisions – although in this case not the goal from Selhurst Park.

The show did however reveal that Chris Kavanagh, the referee who sent off Declan Rice last month, admitted he “did not like” the controversial decision but told the Arsenal midfielder he “had no choice”.

Atkinson, an experienced former Premier League referee, is now a coach of the leading select group one of referees.

In the aftermath of the 2-2 draw, in which Palace came back from two goals behind with two strikes from Mateta, Steve Cooper immediately questioned the decision to overturn the decision to disallow the home side’s first goal. The referee Tony Harrington had originally disallowed it on the advice of his assistant. Cooper called for the Premier League to provide the evidence that Mateta had been played onside by defender James Justin at the point of contact.

Cooper said on Saturday that he wanted to see the definitive image that the offside was judged on. He said: “If it is, no problem, we’ll hold our hands up. But we can’t be calling offsides on suggestions, which is only what we’ve seen at the moment. We need to get that image quickly off the Premier League. If it is, I’ll accept it.”

The Hawk-Eye system uses multiple cameras calibrated to determine the position of players’ bodies at the crucial moment. On its website the Premier League said: “Hawk-Eye can use any broadcast camera to identify the point of contact with the ball by the attacker, and synchronises all cameras for this purpose.”

PGMOL says that it considers the decision made by the VAR team to have been correct. It says that Webb was not available to meet with Leicester on Monday because he was attending a conference in the morning as well as filming his television segment in the evening. PGMOL says he offered a meeting date later in the week.