Lee Mason has been excluded from officiating in any of the upcoming weekend matches in the Premier League following his appalling error the past matchweek which garnered lots of criticism.
The Englishman was the Video Assistant Referee at the Emirates Stadium when Arsenal took on Brentford and he was culpable in not drawing the line on the replay to show if a Brentford player was offside in the move that led to the equalizer.
Ivan Toney poked home an header in the 74th minute of action to squash the hopes of Mikel Arteta’s side securing the maximum three points.
As a result of first-placed Arsenal dropping five points from a possible six in two match weeks, second-placed Manchester City took advantage to reduce the points differential between them to just three points.
Lee Mason under fire for blunder in the game involving Arsenal
Lee Mason is in the firing line of calls from former refrees’ chief Keith Hackett wanting him to be sacked since the costly mistake which could have great consequences in the push for the title.
The man who operated as the Video Assistant Referee in the match at the Emirates Stadium between Mike Arteta’s Arsenal and Thomas Frank’s Brentford is not the only official to be in hot water.
John Brooks is also facing his own retribution due to error in Brighton Vs Crystal Palace encounter
John Brooks is also facing punishment for his actions as he was removed from officiating for the Gunners battle with Manchester City on Wednesday.
He was excluded after wrongfully drawing VAR lines from the wrong defender in the match involving Brighton and Hove Albion against Crystal Palace.
With The Bees striving tooth and nail against the Gunners to get back in contention to take at least a point back to West London, Ivan Toney finished off an impressive performance scoring his 14th goal of the season.
VAR seemingly checks Toney’s goal but still awards it
Even though his goal was scrutinized by the Video Assistant Referee, it was subsequently adjudged as a goal leaving Arsenal in a position of dropping five points from two games.
It later became evident that Lee Mason had not done a thorough check for the course of action which permitted the goal to be allowed.
Christian Norgaard was apparently in an offside position before teeing up the English forward.
Lee Mason excluded from list of match officials for upcoming games
On Tuesday, the Premier League put out their list of match officials for the coming games and Lee Mason’s name was excluded.
However, while Lee Mason was not included, John Brooks still made the Premier League’s newly released list of officials.
John Brooks back in officiating action
But John Brooks was not added to the list for VAR related duties as he would return to assistant refereeing duties as fourth official when the Gunners battle Aston Villa on Saturday.
Lee Mason first error in the 2022/23 Premier League season
The error in the game between Arsenal and Brentford is the second big mistake Lee Mason has made this season, after chalking off a Newcastle goal in the Magpies clash with Crystal Palace back in September, he was excluded from duty afterwards.
“His” reason for disallowing the goal
He dissalowed the goal for Newcastle United on the position that Joe Willock impeded Crystal Palace goalie, Vicente Guaita, only for replays to display that the midfielder was pushed to the path of the Spaniard by Eagles defender Tyrick Mitchell.
Howard Webb called for an impromptu meeting
Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) called an impromptu meeting for match officials to coverse about the two clear errors in a bid to eliminate similar errors from happening in the future.
The error promoted Howard Webb to get in touch with Arsenal and Brighton to apologize for the notable errors in those VAR calls.
The statement from PGMOL
PGMOL statement included: “Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed.”
Lee Mason who is 51-year-old retired from on-field officiating in 2021 and is primarily now focused on VAR duties.
