Thomas Tuchel dismisses VAR official’s belated apology for missing foul

Thomas Tuchel said he was unimpressed by the belated apology of the VAR official Mike Dean for missing the foul on Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella that preceded Tottenham’s late equaliser in last week’s absorbing 2-2 draw.

Dean wrote in his Daily Mail column: “I didn’t deem it a violent act” and that “upon reflection”, he should have asked the referee, Anthony Taylor, to visit his “pitchside monitor to take a look for himself” after Cucurella’s hair was pulled by Cristian Romero, the Spurs defender.

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“I would not take that amount of time after I made a mistake like this to say I did a mistake,” said the Chelsea manager, who has been handed a suspended one-game touchline ban for his post-match skirmish with opposite number Antonio Conte, but will be present for Sunday afternoon’s match at Leeds.

Tuchel added that an official’s apology coming via a paid newspaper column was “a bit strange” but was far more fixated on the decision being “more than just a bad decision”.

“In 99% of the decisions we are discussing about handball or not handball, sometimes I don’t understand fully the rules and there are always explanations. But it’s a new level of a mistake, I think, such an obvious and clear mistake with such an enormous consequence, immediately to the outcome of the game.

“It was very, very hard to accept and to understand, and what I cannot understand is that it takes a man, a grownup man, a further referee, from the Sunday to the Friday to admit this mistake. I am not impressed by how it’s written.”

Harry Kane’s late equaliser was followed by Tuchel and Conte confronting each other during their post-match handshake before both were given a red