The Premier League is the best soccer league in the world, right? That doesn’t necessarily mean it always has the best refereeing in the world. In fact, there have been times when Premier League refereeing has dropped to lamentable standards. Even in these days of goal-line technology and VAR, we’re still seeing some big refereeing blunders. These are some of the biggest Premier League referee blunders in history.
When Tottenham played Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2005, Pedro Mendes attempted to lob the Roy Carroll goalkeeper almost from the halfway line. The ball bounced off and behind Carroll, with the keeper scrambling to push it out of the net. Replays show the ball clearly crossed the line by a feet-wide margin, but the Premier League referee did not give the goal. “That is a travesty, an absolute travesty,” cried one of the match commentators, who couldn’t believe the goal wasn’t given.
VAR was supposed to reduce refereeing blunders, but it was a Video Assistant Referee calamity that wrongly ruled out Díaz’s goal against Tottenham. Luis Díaz scored an opening goal that was wrongly flagged for offside. The VAR team confirmed the goal to be onside, but misheard the original on-field decision to be goal given rather than offside. Consequently, the VAR panel relayed a message of check-complete, believing it was confirming an onside goal. The VAR check had confirmed an offside, and when play resumed, it was too late to change it!
So, this was ultimately a VAR blunder. The assistant referee made a blunder by raising the offside flag for an onside goal in the first place. It was one of the most comical Premier League referee blunders that made some of the soccer pundits laugh. The ruled-out goal cost Liverpool a point as the match ended 2-1 to Tottenham. So, the Spurs fans were certainly laughing!
When Brentford equalized against Arsenal in this 2023 match, Christian Nørgaard had strayed into an offside position when he received the ball to make his assisting cross for Ivan Toney to score. The VAR official, Mr. Mason, checked for an earlier potential infringement in the buildup but completely forgot to draw the digital offside line for Nørgaard. Thus, he didn’t really check for the offside, and the goal was duly given. It was an offside goal that cost Arsenal two points as the match ended 1-1.
Manchester City were 1-0 up against Everton late in this 2022 Premiership game when Rodri controlled the ball with his arm in his team’s penalty box. The replays showed quite clearly that the ball had touched Rodri’s arm below the sleeve line, rather than the shoulder, when the midfielder brought it down in Man City’s penalty area. VAR checked it, but still the penalty was not given.
Referees’ chief Mike Riley conceded this was one of the biggest Premier League referee blunders. It was a blunder that probably cost Everton two points as the match ended 1-0 to Manchester City. Yet, it was most costly to Liverpool, as Manchester City pipped the Scousers to the Premier League title by one point.
This was one of the biggest Premier League referee blunders that left Fergie fuming in a crucial 2010 title-race showdown match against Chelsea at Old Trafford. The Blues were 1-0 up when Drogba received a pass from Salomon Kalou in an offside position and proceeded to smash the ball into the back of Man Utd’s net. He was clearly a few yards offside, but the goal was given nonetheless.
Manchester Utd pulled a late goal back in that match to make the final score 2-1 to Chelsea. Thus, the offside goal cost Man Utd two points. It was an offside goal that cost Manchester Utd the title as Chelsea won the league by a one-point margin. Ferguson said after the match: “The linesman is right in front of Drogba and he gets it wrong… The quality of the officials has cost us.”
For pure comedy value, Sunderland’s beach ball goal against Liverpool has to be included among the biggest Premier League referee blunders in history. Darren Bent put Sunderland ahead with a volleyed shot that sent the ball into the back of the net. There wasn’t that much wrong with the goal, except that it took a wicked deflection of a large, red beach ball thrown onto the pitch inside Liverpool’s penalty area. It was debatable whether Bent or the beach ball had scored the goal!
This was one of the most notable and comical Premier League blunders because the red beach ball should have been removed from the pitch before the goal was scored. FIFA law states that matches must be stopped to remove foreign objects from the pitch. Yet, the referee did nothing to remove the beach ball beforehand and gave the goal to Sunderland, which was enough to secure a 1-0 victory against Liverpool. The beach ball is on display in the National Football Museum today.
It’s interesting to note that half of the biggest Premier League blunders above have come from the VAR era. Although VAR has helped referees make better decisions, it has evidently not eliminated refereeing fiascos from the English game. Soccer match officials will always make some blunders with or without fancy VAR and goal-line technology because they’re only human. So, maybe FIFA should introduce robot referees!
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