(Reuters) – Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said he was not impressed by VAR official Mike Dean’s belated apology following his mistake that led to Tottenham Hotspur’s late equalizer in the 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge last weekend.
On-field referee Anthony Taylor failed to spot Cristian Romero’s hair pull on Marc Cucurella, with Dean admitting this week that he should have asked Taylor to visit the referee review area and check for a possible red card offense.
“Upon reflection, I should have asked Taylor to visit his pitch-side monitor to take a look for himself. The referee on the field always has the final say,” Dean wrote in a column for The Mail+.
Tuchel said he was surprised it took Dean so long to accept his mistake.
“My concern is more why it takes so long. It will not change things, unfortunately, but the decision is more than just a bad decision,” he told reporters before Sunday’s trip to Leeds United.
“We can discuss endlessly, but it is a new level of mistake. And for such an obvious and clear mistake with such an enormous consequence immediately for the outcome of a game, it was very, very hard to accept and to understand.”
Harry Kane’s equalizer led to a heated confrontation between Tuchel and opposite number Antonio Conte at full time, resulting in a suspended one-match touchline ban and a fine of 35,000 pounds ($41,000) for the German.
“I will survive it,” added Tuchel. “It is not a problem. It is a bit harder to accept given the context that two minutes before somebody on our team got pulled by the hair.”
($1 = 0.8455 pounds)
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
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