The dust had barely settled on the penalty handed to Kylian Mbappe against Racing Santander when England delivered fresh refereeing admissions, this time over decisive errors in a Premier League fixture.
Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees admitted the spot-kick awarded to Mbappe against Racing Santander should never have been given, in an eleventh-round clash that Real Madrid won 3-0.
A serious refereeing error had occurred, the Committee acknowledged, confirming the contact between Mbappe and defender Mateo Prati was no penalty.
Palmer’s sending-off
Over in England, the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel ruled that Chelsea’s Cole Palmer deserved a straight red card during his side’s 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, the London derby played on 24 October in round eight.
Referee Chris Kavanagh booked Palmer in the 70th minute for a shove on Tottenham midfielder Matheus Fernandes. The England international then picked up a second yellow and was dismissed after a challenge on Conor Gallagher.
The five-member panel voted 3-2 that Palmer’s first challenge on Fernandes warranted a direct sending-off. The majority judged that the player deliberately made contact with the head, and that his action was unnecessary, dangerous and carried out with excessive force.
Published by the Premier League, the panel’s verdict read: “The majority felt that Palmer’s action towards Fernandes involved clear contact with the head, and was unnecessary, dangerous and carried out with excessive force.”
On the VAR call, though, the panel was unanimous. John Brooks was right not to intervene, they agreed, because Kavanagh’s yellow card was not a “clear and obvious error” that demanded video technology.
By a majority of 4-1, the panel also backed the referee’s decision to show Palmer his second yellow in the 80th minute.
Palmer had already sat out a one-match ban, missing Chelsea’s League Cup defeat to Liverpool. Treating the first incident as a direct red, however, would have ruled him out for three games. That would have cost him the 2-0 win over Manchester United, in which he scored a penalty, plus the following round against Sunderland.
Tottenham penalty
Another flashpoint from the same game split the panel 3-2. Tottenham should have had a penalty in the 85th minute for Moises Caicedo’s foul on Dominic Solanke, they ruled, yet by the same margin they upheld the VAR’s decision not to intervene.
According to the majority, “Caicedo was continually holding Solanke, while he was away from the ball, which affected the opponent’s ability to advance”.
So Tottenham claimed only their second league win over Chelsea in 36 years. Mike Penders turned the ball into his own net in the 77th minute before Mathys Tel sealed it late on.
