Premier League referee Lee Mason has left the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) and will no longer officiate in the league, following a major mistake he made during Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Brentford last week.
The departure is said to be by mutual consent, and comes as a blow to Mason, who has been a Premier League official since 2006.
During the Arsenal match, Mason served as VAR and incorrectly allowed Ivan Toney’s equalizer to stand, despite missing an offside call on Christian Norgaard. The error left Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta furious and could prove costly in the club’s race to beat Manchester City to the Premier League title.
On Tuesday, Arteta reluctantly accepted the PGMOL’s apology and took a swipe at Mason, saying, “I will only be satisfied if they give the two points back. That is not acceptable, I’m sorry. It cost Arsenal two points, we’ll have to find those two points somewhere else in the league.
The incident also angered PGMOL boss Howard Webb, who summoned all officials to a Stockley Park summit to discuss the weekend’s errors. In addition to Mason’s mistake, Brighton also had a goal wrongly chalked off against Crystal Palace.
In the 1-1 draw, John Brooks drew the offside line from the wrong Palace defender after Pervis Estupinan had scored for Roberto De Zerbi’s side. Mason and Brooks were among the Premier League’s officials who sat through a video workshop led by Webb to ensure the same mistakes were not made the following weekend.
Mason’s departure from PGMOL and the Premier League is a significant development for English football, and the organization will need to work hard to ensure that such errors do not happen again in the future.
