{"id":302100,"date":"2026-02-17T06:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302100\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T06:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:51:11","slug":"chris-kavanagh-will-not-referee-top-flight-game-this-weekend-after-fa-cup-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302100\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Kavanagh will not referee top-flight game this weekend after FA Cup errors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Kavanagh has not been appointed to referee a Premier League game this weekend after a series of errors during the Aston Villa v Newcastle FA Cup tie last Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Kavanagh and his assistants Gary Beswick and Nick Greenhalgh were heavily criticised for their performance during the FA Cup fourth-round clash at Villa Park, where they were operating without VAR as was the case for all ties in the round.<\/p>\n<p>They failed to spot Tammy Abraham was offside for Villa\u2019s opening goal, missed a shin-high tackle by Villa full-back Lucas Digne on Newcastle\u2019s Jacob Murphy which could have warranted a straight red card and then gave a free-kick for a handball by Digne even though he was clearly inside the penalty area at the time.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Justice for Newcastle? \u26ab\u26aa<\/p>\n<p>The Magpies wanted a penalty, but Sandro Tonali eventually scores anyway from the resulting free-kick! \u26bd <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tADr63R6aC\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/tADr63R6aC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCSport\/status\/2022752253338100093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beswick was named as an assistant for the Nottingham Forest v Liverpool match on Sunday, but Kavanagh and Greenhalgh do not feature.<\/p>\n<p>Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) believes in officials being accountable for their errors which explains Kavanagh missing out this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>However, he is highly regarded, was recently promoted to UEFA\u2019s elite list of referees and regularly officiates in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Monday, Wayne Rooney said he believed the errors made were an indication of an over-reliance on VAR by officials.<\/p>\n<p>Rooney described the handball call as \u201cone of the worst decisions he had ever seen\u201d, in his role as one of the BBC\u2019s pundits for the live broadcast of the match on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"436\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/chris-kavanagh-will-not-referee-top-flight-game-this-weekend-after-fa-cup-errors.jpg\" alt=\"Wayne Rooney\" data-title=\"Macclesfield FC v Crystal Palace \u2013 Emirates FA Cup \u2013 Third Round \u2013 Leasing.com Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"\/>Wayne Rooney believes referees rely too heavily on VAR (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Wayne Rooney Show podcast subsequently, he added: \u201cI think there\u2019s over-reliance on VAR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd unfortunately, now the officials are used to that and where they\u2019ve been getting their help and it\u2019s been getting them out of jail at times or they\u2019re waiting for that to make the decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith no VAR they have to make the decision and they\u2019re probably used to keeping the flag down and that\u2019s what\u2019s cost the decisions yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Premier League referee Graham Scott, who was a guest on the podcast, said he did not think it was fair to say referees were hiding behind VAR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously I work with them closely and I know these guys and they\u2019re not like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"479\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771311071_18_chris-kavanagh-will-not-referee-top-flight-game-this-weekend-after-fa-cup-errors.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Kavanagh\" data-title=\"Liverpool v Arsenal \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Anfield\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Peter Byrne\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"\/>Chris Kavanagh was recently promoted to UEFA\u2019s elite list of referees (Peter Byrne\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not how their minds work, not how their processes work. I spent half my career with VAR and half without it, the other way around of course, without it first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then when I was in the Premier League I was still dropping into the Championship quite often. So you\u2019re in and out, in and out. And your processes essentially stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>VAR will be used in the FA Cup from the fifth round onwards.<\/p>\n<p>Top-flight referees are very much encouraged to back themselves in their on-field decisions.<\/p>\n<p>The Premier League has the lowest VAR intervention rate of any major European competition and works on the principle that unless a subjective decision is clearly and obviously wrong, the referee\u2019s call on-field should stand.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Kavanagh has not been appointed to referee a Premier League game this weekend after a series of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-302100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}