The official removed from duty after the farce around Luis Diaz‘s offside goal against Tottenham has been appointed his first Liverpool game since that day.
Darren England was in the VAR booth for the Reds’ 2-1 loss to Spurs a year ago, when a grave error in communication led to Diaz’s legitimate goal being ruled out.
Both England and assistant VAR Dan Cook were quietly removed from duties in the aftermath, though reports that he had been blacklisted for Liverpool fixtures for the remainder of the season were refuted by PGMOL sources.
Eased back into officiating in the Premier League and then into the VAR booth in April after a six-month break, he is now set to be involved in a Liverpool game for the first time since.
The Premier League have confirmed that Anthony Taylor will referee Wolves vs. Liverpool on Saturday evening, with Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn his assistants.
England will serve as fourth official, while Michael Salisbury and assistant Dan Robathan will be VAR.
It marks almost a year to the day since that nightmare in north London, giving credence to suggestions that England had been blacklisted.
The 38-year-old has refereed 30 games since the incident PGMOL admitted to being a “significant human error,” with only 12 of those coming in the Premier League – four, in fact, came in the J-League in Japan.
He has only been on lead VAR duties on 11 occasions in the past year, with three coming in European qualifiers involving teams from Moldova, Wales, Lithuania, Finland, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Ireland.
There will be no ill feeling from Liverpool’s end at this stage, with a new campaign underway and a new team in the dugout, led by Arne Slot.
So far, Slot has given little criticism of officiating in his seven games in charge, though that is certainly aided by a record of six wins in those fixtures.
Taylor has already refereed one Liverpool game this season – that being the 3-0 win over Man United at Old Trafford.
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