Mike Dean lost for words live on Sky Sports after VAR mix up for ‘stonewall’ penalty during Premier League clash
FORMER Premier League referee Mike Dean was left dumbfounded by VAR confusion during Burnley’s 2-1 win over Brentford.
Defender Sergio Reguilon was dismissed in the eighth minute for denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity, with Vincent Kompany‘s men also awarded a penalty.
And Dean confirmed in Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday studio before the decision was made that it should be a red card and spot kick.
As referee Darren Bond went to the pitchside monitor after originally not awarding the penalty, Dean said: “Stonewall [penalty], he has kneed him in the back of the leg and there is a push as well. Paul Tierney is the VAR and he has sent Darren [Bond] over.
“It will be an interesting decision really because if the penalty stands, he [Reguilon] has made no attempt to play the ball so it could be a potential red card, too.”
But Dean was then left baffled as those in the Sky Sports studio could not see anything on the VAR monitor.
Dean added: “It’s plugged in but there’s no pictures right now.
“It’s not the fault of the refs or the VAR, it’s actually the people running the system, so something technical went wrong somewhere.”
This was actually not the case, with Sky Sports subsequently clarifying that the VAR technology was working fine.
In fact, the five-minute stoppage to assess the incident was largely due to the VAR analysing an offside in the build-up.
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The penalty and red card were eventually dished out, before Jacob Bruun Larsen converted the spot kick in the 10th minute.
David Datro Fofana doubled Burnley‘s lead shortly after the hour mark, before Kristoffer Ajer pulled one back for Brentford late on.
It is Burnley’s first win in 12 games – a run which stretches back to December.
But they are still eight points adrift of Premier League safety with just nine games remaining.