Leicester City boss Steve Cooper has accused the Premier League of using ‘false images’ to cover up a VAR error during last weekend’s match with Crystal Palace.
The newly-promoted side are still searching for their first win of the season but were denied three points when Jean-Philippe Mateta’s injury-time penalty rescued a 2-2 draw for Oliver Glasner’s side.
However, the Foxes believe they still deserved a win after Mateta’s first-half goal was controversially allowed to stand by VAR having been initially ruled out by the on-field team.
Initially images appeared to show Mateta was in an offside position when the ball was crossed in by Tyrick Mitchell, but Leicester boss Cooper claimed PGMOL used a different frame from after the ball left the Palace full-back’s boot to incorrectly award the goal.
‘It was an awful human error. It’s been hidden in the media. That has been as disappointing as the error itself,’ Cooper said.
‘We have seen images that show he clearly was offside. But they froze it at the wrong time. Everything that has been seen has been a false image.
‘We showed the Premier League that they used the wrong image. We had a massive error go against us. We don’t want it to go under the radar because that’s not fair to the players or the supporters.
‘Errors like that shouldn’t happen. It’s why we’re changing to semi-automated [offsides]. We felt very let down by it. We needed to stand up for the club and tell the Premier League what we thought.’
He continued: ‘We asked them to explain [the decision] and it confirmed they were wrong in terms of when they stopped the game. It’s not been near the media. Everything you’ve seen on Match of the Day or Sky was wrong. We showed them [PGMOL] that, but they’ve not come back to us since.”
‘Mistakes will happen. Hopefully we’ll now be on the end of a decision that goes for us. But [PGMOL should] own up to it. That’s what the players and managers do. Referees need to as well.
‘We can’t release the [pictures] and we won’t. We sent them [PGMOL] our presentation and footage, but we’ve not heard anything back.’
Leicester will look to channel their pain into a much-needed win against Everton on Satuday in a huge game between two sides at the wrong end of the table.
‘We’re taking every game as it comes and treating with equal importance,’ Cooper said. ]’They have a lot of very good players and a very experienced manager.
‘We have to focus on what we can bring. We’re excited about the game and being at home. It’s been a brilliant training week I have to say, on the back of a difficult result and a really bad decision we’ve had to pick up with the Premier League.’
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