Panel rules referee and VAR made wrong call in Leeds United's defeat to Sunderland

Referee Stuart Attwell either did not see Sunderland captain Luke O'Nien grabbing Pascal Struijk around the neck and shoulders and pulling him to the ground at a corner, or did not feel it was a foul.

Paul Tierney, the video assistant referee (VAR) on the night, did not intervene despite replays showing a clear picture of the incident.

The guidance to VARs has encouraged them to intervene less this season, only in the case of clear and obvious errors. The panel felt this was one.

In its words, O'Nien was "not looking at the ball, places his arms around the neck of Struijk in a clear non-footballing action and stops the Leeds United attacker from progressing towards goal."

After the game, Leeds manager Daniel Farke, who was sent off for aggressively approaching referee Peter Bankes three days earlier, said: "Normally we should have been rewarded with a penalty in the first half.”

Leeds went on to lose the game 1-0 when Ethan Ampadu conceded a penalty for handball which Habib Diarra converted. Again Attwell did not award a penalty, until Tierney sent him to the pitchside monitor.

It was only the Whites' third Premier League home defeat of the season and took Sunderland to 40 points, usually regarded as the safety mark for teams worried about relegation.

The panel supported the decision to award Sundeland a penalty, saying: "Ampadu clearly knocks the ball away with his arm in a secondary motion and the VAR intervention was supported as correct."

Introduced in 2022, the five-strong panel is made up of former players and coaches, a Premier League referee and a representative of Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the body which runs English professional refereeing.

Its weekly meetings have no impact beyond highlighting standards of officiating on the field and in Stockley Park in an attempt to raise standards.