FORMER Premier League referee Mike Dean was left stunned by VAR confusion during Burnley’s 2-1 win over Brentford.
Defender Sergio Reguilon was sent off in the eighth minute for denying a clear scoring opportunity, with Vincent Kompany’s men also awarded a penalty.
And Dean confirmed in Sky Sports’ Saturday studio before the decision was made that it should have been a red card and a penalty.
When referee Darren Bond went to the pitch monitor after initially not awarding the penalty, Dean said: “Stonewall [penalty], he has kneed him in the back of his leg and there is also pushing. Paul Tierney is the VAR and he sent Darren on [Bond] about.
“It will be an interesting decision because if the penalty stands, he will [Reguilon] didn’t attempt to play the ball, so it could also be a possible red card.”
But Dean was then left baffled as those in the Sky Sports studio could see nothing on the VAR monitor.
Dean added: “It’s connected but there are no pictures at the moment.
“It’s not the fault of the referees or the VAR, it’s actually the people who run the system, so something technically went wrong somewhere.”
This was in fact not the case, with Sky Sports subsequently clarifying that the VAR technology worked fine.
In fact, the five-minute delay to review the incident was largely due to VAR analyzing an offside in the build-up.
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The penalty and red card were eventually awarded, before Jacob Bruun Larsen converted the penalty in the 10th minute.
David Datro Fofana doubled Burnley’s lead shortly after the hour mark, before Kristoffer Ajer pulled the lead back for Brentford late on.
It is Burnley’s first win in twelve games, a streak dating back to December.
But they are still eight points away from safety in the Premier League with just nine games remaining.