John Brooks taken off VAR duty for two matches following Brighton error

The VAR who wrongly disallowed a Brighton goal against Crystal Palace at the weekend has been replaced for two matches he was due to officiate this week.

John Brooks ruled out a goal by Pervis Estupinan after drawing the offside lines against the wrong Palace player, one of two major offside errors by VARs during Saturday’s action.

Brooks had been due to act as VAR for Monday night’s Merseyside derby and the Arsenal v Manchester City match on Wednesday, but Professional Game Match Officials (PGMOL) has confirmed Brooks has been replaced by Andre Marriner and David Coote respectively for those matches.

PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/dCDkooxhxf

— PGMOL (@FA_PGMOL) February 12, 2023

PGMOL’s chief refereeing officer Howard Webb has called a referees meeting for Tuesday in the wake of the two high-profile errors made in the Premier League over the weekend.

The other involved dedicated VAR Lee Mason, who failed to check an offside in the build-up to Ivan Toney’s equaliser for Brentford at Arsenal.

Appointments for the next round of Premier League matches are due to be confirmed at midday on Tuesday.

PGMOL has not commented on whether Mason will be involved. He was not selected earlier this season in the round following another high-profile error he made, when he disallowed a goal for Newcastle in their home match against Crystal Palace on September 3.

Webb’s impact since his return to the English game at the end of last year after a stint managing referees in the United States has largely been well