Referee Chris Kavanagh and his assistant Nick Greenhalgh, who officiated Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie between Aston Villa and Newcastle United, will not feature in the Premier League this weekend.
The match, which Newcastle won 3-1, was littered with contentious decisions in the absence of a video assistant referee (VAR), which is not introduced in the competition until the fifth-round stage.
Villa’s 14th-minute opener through Tammy Abraham from Douglas Luiz’s free-kick appeared to be a clear offside.
Later, Lucas Digne’s studs-up challenge on Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy resulted in a yellow card, rather than a red, while there was a possible offside against Dan Burn on Newcastle’s equalising goal.
The game — which also saw Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot sent-off in the first half for a rash foul on Murphy — is likely to be remembered for a non-penalty decision on left-back Digne, who handled the ball yards inside his own penalty area but was penalised with a free-kick outside the box against him.
In December, Kavanagh joined fellow Premier League referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor on UEFA’s elite list of officials.
The other assistant at Villa Park, Gary Beswick, has been appointed to officiate in Nottingham Forest’s home league game against Liverpool on Sunday.
Officials are selected for matches by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) based on multiple factors, including with post-match performance assessments conducted by an independent key match incidents (KMI) panel.
In December, Kavanagh joined fellow Premier League referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor on UEFA’s elite list of officials.
After Saturday’s FA Cup game, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said he remains “so torn” on VAR but was left “incensed” that “so many” decisions went against his side at Villa Park.
Villa’s manager Unai Emery said the game demonstrated why officials need the technology: “Today it makes sense to (understand that) VAR is necessary to help the referees.”