Premier League make Newcastle United v Brighton official decision after 'cheat' claim & Liverpool complaint

The Premier League has confirmed the match officials for Newcastle United versus Brighton & Hove Albion this afternoon (kick-off 3pm).

Eddie Howe’s men welcome the Seagulls to St James’ Park for their final home game of the 2023-24 campaign. And similar to last year’s 4-1 win, the Magpies will be hoping for another three points that will take them on the brink of European qualification.

Overseeing the fixture is Darren England. The 38-year-old has refereed just one game involving Newcastle this term and that was their 1-0 defeat away to Luton Town on December 23. Meanwhile, Brighton were last officiated by England in February 2023.

England came under attack from Burnley boss Vincent Kompany in late March when he awarded Chelsea a penalty during their 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. Kompany was charged with 'misconduct' and admitted his 'language and/or behaviour' during the game was 'improper and/or abusive and/or insulting towards a match official', as well as questioning the integrity of an official after calling him a “------- cheat”.

The former Manchester City defender admitted the charge and attended the hearing not 'to justify his behaviour but to apologise personally'. 

England was also involved one of the campaign’s biggest VAR blunders when Luis Diaz’s goal was wrongly ruled out for offside during Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in September.

The VAR team of England and Daniel Cook thought referee Simon Hooper’s onfield decision was onside. England signalled ‘check complete’ which resulted in the play restarting with a Spurs free-kick. They realised their mistake immediately but couldn’t change the decision under existing protocols.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb admitted it was a clear error by England and Cook and both officials stood down for the final round of matches before the October international break.

Reds manager Jurgen Klopp suggested the fixture should be replayed after Liverpool released a powerful statement.

"Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night," the statement read. "It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined.

"We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.

"It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.

"That such failings have already been categorised as 'significant human error' is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.

"This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.”

England will be assisted by Eddie Smart and Nick Greenhalgh with Andy Madley on VAR and Nick Hopton on assistant VAR. Leigh Doughty is the fourth official.