The Premier League have confirmed their appointments for Liverpool vs. Bournemouth on Saturday, with a concerning VAR record for the referee.
After Tuesday night’s Champions League opener at AC Milan, the Reds are back to Anfield for a Premier League clash with Bournemouth.
A 3pm kickoff, it comes a week after Arne Slot‘s first defeat in charge – the miserable 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest.
Liverpool will be hoping for a strong response, then, and will be hoping for little influence from those appointed as offcials.
The Premier League have confirmed that Tony Harrington will referee the tie, with Marc Perry and Derek Eaton assistants and Bobby Madley as fourth official.
Graham Scott will be in the VAR booth supported by Sian Massey-Ellis.
It will be only the third time Harrington has refereed a Liverpool fixture, having been promoted to the PGMOL’s Select Group 1 in 2021.
His previous two games were both in the Carabao Cup, with the Reds thrashing Lincoln City 7-2 behind closed doors in the third round in 2020/21 and then beating Derby on penalties after a 0-0 draw at the same stage in 2022/23.
Harrington’s inexperience in high-profile fixtures will not be a major concern, though his record of being overturned by VAR may be.
Per ESPN, no referee was overturned more often by VAR in 2023/24 than the Teesside-born official, with five overturns in just 10 games.
Only two other officials were deemed to have a worse record when it came to subjective errors per game, too, with Harrington (0.6) behind Michael Salisbury (1.07 per game) and Stuart Attwell (0.71 per game).
Harrington also came away with the worst record as VAR, too, with an error every five games – more than Darren England (5.5 games), Attwell (7.5 games) and Paul Tierney (7.75 games).
He has only refereed two fixtures so far in this season’s Premier League, those being Aston Villa‘s 2-1 win at West Ham in the opening weekend and the 2-2 draw between Crystal Palace and Leicester last time out.
Leicester were left demanding clarification from the league over VAR Andy Madley’s decision to overrule an offside decision for Palace’s opening goal, with manager Steve Cooper frustrated due to the angle used to judge the infringement.
Though Harrington was referee that afternoon he was not at fault in that situation – and the Premier League have typically absolved themselves of blame.
