Arsenal foe Mason ‘called for emergency meeting’ by PGMOL chief amid fresh attack from Arteta

Lewis Oldham 15 Feb 2023 8:03 AM

PGMOL chief Howard Webb reportedly ‘called for an emergency meeting’ after ‘blunders’ from Lee Mason and John Brooks impacted Arsenal and Brighton.

Mason was the VAR for Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Brentford over the weekend. Mikel Arteta’s side were on course for a 1-0 win over their London rivals before Ivan Toney’s equaliser.

It was subsequently spotted that this goal should have been ruled out by VAR as Christian Norgaard was offside in the build-up.

This is while Brooks was the VAR for Brighton’s 1-1 draw versus Crystal Palace. He ruled out Pervis Estupinan’s goal for the Seagulls after wrongly drawing the offside line to James Tomkins instead of Marc Guehi.

The Daily Mail are reporting that both officials were ‘called for an emergency meeting’ by PGMOL chief Webb on Tuesday.

All of the Premier League’s officials were present as Webb led a ‘video workshop’ and this was ‘focused on reviewing the mistakes made by Mason and Brooks’.

A statement from the PGMOL read: ‘A constructive meeting was held at Stockley Park, led by chief refereeing officer Howard Webb, to thoroughly review officiating errors in Premier League matches last weekend.

‘There was a focus on error prevention and a reinforcement of best practice process with the aim of achieving accurate outcomes in an efficient manner going forward.

‘We accept mistakes were made and we acted accordingly by calling a meeting and changing match official appointments where appropriate, however, we are encouraged by the way our officials have responded and are confident they will take the learnings forward, always with the aim of delivering high officiating standards for the benefit of the game.’

It was initially argued that the mistake from Mason was down to ‘human error’. This was refuted by Arteta when he spoke with reporters on Wednesday night as he accused Mason of “not understanding his job”.

“We ended the [Brentford] game, after analysing it with the evidence and images, with a huge anger and disappointment,” Arteta said in his press conference on Tuesday.

“Because that wasn’t a human error. That was a big, big, big not conceiving and understanding your job. That’s not acceptable, I’m sorry. And that cost Arsenal two points and that’s not going to be restored.

“So we are going have to find those two points somewhere else in the league. But at the same time, we appreciate the apology and the explanations which were really open to be fair.

“We have got a lot of sympathy from a lot of colleagues and in the industry and in football. They are [saying] we cannot play with integrity in the way that we do. And that’s it. We have to move on.

“That has certainly made the players, the staff, the fans even stronger with a desire to pass this herald that they put on us. We move on with it.”

Arsenal Howard Webb