Premier League panel says VAR missed Leeds penalty in Sunderland win | OneFootball

The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel has ruled that Leeds United should have been awarded an early penalty in their 1-0 home defeat by Sunderland, and that VAR should have intervened.

According to Sunderland Echo, the review focused on a first-half incident at Elland Road on 3 March involving Luke O’Nien and Pascal Struijk during a corner.

The panel found O’Nien was not looking at the ball and had his arms around Struijk, preventing him from attacking it. They said referee Stuart Attwell should have awarded a spot-kick and VAR official Paul Tierney should have stepped in. The verdict was unanimous.

Sunderland later won the match with a 70th-minute penalty for handball against Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu after a VAR review. The panel backed that intervention by five votes to nil, noting a secondary arm movement that diverted the ball.

Leeds head coach Daniel Farke criticised the non-award afterwards, questioning why VAR did not check it. He said the referee would have given a penalty on review and accepted it was harder for the on-field official to see in real time.

Source: Sunderland Echo