Temperatures were high in the Soccer Saturday studio, with former Arsenal man Paul Merson furious with former Premier League referee Mike Dean over his views on VAR.
Paul Merson clash with former Premier League referee Mike Dean during a heated argument over VAR on Football Saturday.
VAR returns to the agenda as a major topic of discussion following the Horrible mistake to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal For Liverpool in the 2-1 defeat against Tottenham Last weekend. VAR Darren England failed to overturn the incorrect on-field decision to rule out Diaz’s goal, forcing PGMOL to apologize and release audio.
In the audio, England could be heard repeatedly saying “I can’t do anything” following their mistake because referee Michael Hooper had already restarted the match. Ancient Arsenal Midfielder Merson believes England should have been able to intervene once they discovered their mistake.
But during an increasingly tense conversation, Dean explained, from his perspective, why officials were helpless once they made the mistake. Here is how the argument developed.
Dean : “Training is an ongoing process. They always have messages sent by email and things to go through – certain clips where they have to press the button to be in or out of play. They do it and it goes through the PGMOL. So they still follow online training.
“They came again this week, I know, to try to improve communication. But I don’t know the way forward. Do you bring in former players? For me, no, because I just don’t think so… if you bring players in, half of them don’t completely know the laws of the game, as you can tell by what you just said about restarting games for fun…”
Merson : ” For pleasure ?! FOR THE GOOD ?!”
Dean : “You don’t know the law!” »
Merson : “What do you mean by pleasure? You play against Liverpool Tottenham! One of the greatest games and you say for fun! »
Dean : “But you don’t know the law!”
Merson : “Come on! There is no law! No one is going to die! STOP THE GAME! Nothing will happen! You’re all scared! You’re all saying, ‘Oh my God, we’re all going to get in trouble.’ Stop the game. Stop the game and then consider the circumstances.
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Simon-Thomas : “Merse, calm down, calm down.”
Merson : “Seriously, that’s typical (of someone who) hasn’t played the game.”
Dean : “It’s the law! It’s the law and you can’t change it.
Merson : “Because you know the rules, it’s different.”
Dean : ” It’s that simple. It’s black and white: we can’t change the law. I stay calm and nice here because I know you can’t change the law. And if he wants to explode like a pop bottle, that’s fine with me.
Thomas : “I just want to apologize to the sound department after that Paul Merson outburst. Passions are strong. »
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