The VAR official at the core of a contentious penalty award in PSG’s 1-1 Champions League tie with Newcastle United has been removed from duty by UEFA for a game on Wednesday, according to AFP.
Tomasz Kwiatkowski of Poland was scheduled to be the Video Assistant Referee for Wednesday’s Champions League Group D encounter between Real Sociedad and Red Bull Salzburg in Spain, but he will not be there.
His switch comes after Kylian Mbappe netted a penalty eight minutes into injury time to win PSG a point against Newcastle in Paris on Tuesday, depriving the English club of a famous triumph and pushing them out of the group stage.
Newcastle was leading 1-0 when on-field referee Szymon Marciniak was summoned by his Polish counterpart Kwiatkowski to come over and check photos of Tino Livramento’s handball in the box.
Despite the fact that the violation appeared to be debatable, and a similar handball accusation against Newcastle’s Lewis Miley was dismissed early in the second half, a penalty was awarded.
Eddie Howe, the manager of the English club, labelled the penalty award “a poor decision” after the game.