Neil Swarbrick, the head of the Premier League’s VAR operation, is set to retire at the conclusion of the season. Swarbrick has overseen the VAR operation since its introduction for the 2019-20 season.
The VAR official did not inform referee Craig Pawson that he had missed a potential handball by Tomas Soucek in the penalty area during West Ham’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea at the London Stadium.
According to the Athletic, Swarbrick’s retirement has been ‘planned for a considerable time’ and is not a reaction to recent controversies. Swarbrick had been among the officials criticised following a series of VAR mistakes earlier this month.
Swarbrick had been removed from VAR duty for the following round of matches, along with Lee Mason. Mason had failed to draw the correct lines to rule out Brentford’s equaliser for offside in their 1-1 draw against Arsenal.
Mason left PGMOL by mutual consent a week after the error. Brighton had also been denied a goal against fierce rivals Crystal Palace when Pervis Estupinan’s strike was incorrectly ruled as offside.
In the wake of the mistakes, PGMOL chief Howard Webb had called all officials to an emergency meeting to prevent those kind of errors occurring again. The Premier League had criticised PGMOL amid widespread criticism from fans, pundits and managers.
