In the bizarre fallout of Liverpool’s late 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest it has been erroneously claimed that Paul Tierney was demoted from refereeing duty.

In the odd aftermath of Liverpool’s late 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest, it has been incorrectly alleged that Paul Tierney was demoted from refereeing duties.

Tierney’s failure to throw a drop ball to Forest following Ibrahima Konate’s head injury, just minutes before Darwin Nunez’s 99th-minute winner, has sparked outrage.
Former referee Mike Dean described the gaffe as “monumental” in an interview with Sky Sports, and Mark Clattenburg, Forest’s referee analyst, has pushed to keep the judgment in the spotlight.

In actuality, it was a mistake as common as giving the incorrect side a throw-in or signaling for a goal kick rather than a corner.

The true, huge error was failing to award a free kick for Ryan Yates’ studs on the side of Ibrahima Konate’s head.

Tierney had previously incorrectly awarded Forest a drop ball during the game, but this has been mostly disregarded in favor of headline-grabbing conspiracy claims.

Several sites have now stated that Tierney has been ‘dropped’ from refereeing responsibilities for the upcoming weekend.

The Times, for example, phrased their headline to say that the 43-year-old had been “switched” to VAR for Arsenal’s match against Brentford on Saturday, implying that he had originally been scheduled to work as a referee.

That, of course, has gathered steam on social media, with the common narrative being that Tierney was demoted for his error.

However, it is widely reported, especially in Martyn Ziegler’s story for the Times, that PGMOL does not consider the appointment as a punishment.

According to Ziegler, Tierney is just “among a group of officials who regularly alternate between being referees and VARs.”

The previous time he was not appointed as a referee was in mid-February, the week of Liverpool’s 3-1 victory over Burnley, when he was instead VAR for Luton vs. Sheffield United.

Tierney frequently works double duty during a round of fixtures, but this will be the 10th matchweek out of 28 (35.7%) this season in which he is not appointed as a referee.

He has not been involved in any capacity twice, however he is frequently employed as a VAR if not assigned to refereeing responsibilities, and occasionally as a fourth official.

While it may be argued that referees should be punished more frequently than the PGMOL appears to do, this is not one of those cases.

In any case, to imply that Tierney had deliberately favored Liverpool based on his history of clashes with Jurgen Klopp, especially during the Forest game, would be absurd.