The Premier League have made the absurd decision to make Lee Mason the VAR for tonight’s game between Nottingham Forest and Southampton.
Around Christmas, the Premier League published six incidents from the first half of the season that VAR shouldn’t have awarded.
One of those was the decision for Mason to send Andre Marriner to the screen in the 2-2 draw with Brentford in November.
It’s been claimed that the VAR should have advised the referee that a clear and obvious error wasn’t made and the game continue.
Now, just four three Premier League games later, Forest are lumbered with Mason once again and frankly, it’s a joke!
How many times do Forest have to get stung by Mason and his ineptness?
In 2019, the 51-year-old official awarded Dwight Gayle a penalty to hand West Brom the chance to equalise and earn a point against Forest.
That came in the 94th minute of the contest and Gayle was later fined after it was proved that the striker actually conned the referee and dived.
Mason retired from on-field refereeing at the end of the 2020/21 season and became the league’s first dedicated VAR official.
Premier League decision to have Mason involved in Forest fixture is absurd
A fortnight after informing Forest of an error in their game against Brentford just three games ago, the Reds have the blundering official once more.
It just doesn’t make any sense. Had he made such a high-profile error for one of the top six it’s hard to imagine him being involved with those teams again any time soon.
It sometimes appears as though the clubs down the bottom are more of an afterthought.
Still, Forest have to make sure that VAR doesn’t come into play tonight. If they play as they did during the second half of Sunday’s draw with Chelsea, it shouldn’t matter.
Still, they want to make sure they put on a good performance and having Mason as the VAR this evening isn’t ideal for Steve Cooper as he goes in search of three points.
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