After Constantine Hatzidakis was removed from the match between Liverpool and Arsenal, a second match official has been removed from the upcoming Premier League schedule
During the half-time interval of Liverpool’s match against Arsenal on Sunday, Hatzidakis allegedly ‘elbowed’ Liverpool defender Andy Robertson.
The assistant referee returned to the game for the remainder of the match, but the PGMOL – who select officials for Premier League and EFL games – announced on Monday that he would not officiate any further games while the incident was investigated.
“PGMOL will not appoint Constantine Hatzidakis to fixtures in any of the competitions it serves while the FA investigates the incident involving the assistant referee and Liverpool,” said a PGMOL statement.
It has now been confirmed that a second official will not be on duty this weekend in the Premier League.
The Premier League referee for the upcoming games has been dropped.
The latest Premier League match official appointments do not include Michael Salisbury, who was on VAR duty for Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday.
The officials assigned to that game were chastised for failing to award Brighton several key decisions during the game.
The PGMOL apologized to the Seagulls for failing to award them a penalty, and Salisbury has now been stood down as a result.
The 37-year-old did, however, take charge of Monday’s 2-2 Championship draw between Huddersfield and Blackburn.
Stuart Attwell, the referee for the contentious Tottenham vs. Brighton match, was also chastised for not awarding a penalty to the Seagulls for a perceived foul on Kaoru Mitoma despite being in the line of sight of the incident.
Attwell, who became the Premier League’s youngest official in 2008, has been made available for the upcoming games.
He will be the VAR official when Wolves face Brentford at Molineux on Saturday.
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