Panel Ruling on Liverpool Penalty Denial at Ipswich

The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel has ruled that Liverpool were correctly denied a penalty in their win at Ipswich Town earlier this month.

Liverpool were 2-0 up late in the first half when Cody Gakpo went down on the edge of the area after a sliding challenge from Abdul Fatawu. Darren England waved play on. In Stockley Park, VAR Nick Hopton saw no reason to intervene.

That decision has now been endorsed.

The independent panel voted 4-1 that the incident did not warrant a penalty and unanimously, 5-0, that there should be no VAR review for a potential spot-kick.

In its explanation, the panel described it as “an unusual situation” in which Fatawu made “some contact” on Gakpo after the Liverpool forward had laid the ball off. The majority concluded that the contact fell “below the high threshold for a foul” and agreed it was not a “clear and obvious error” that should have triggered VAR intervention.

On a day when Liverpool were already in control on the scoreboard, the panel has decided the officials were in control of the big call as well.