Premier League put out announcement after Ethan Ampadu incident in Leeds United loss vs Sunderland
The Premier League have put out a statement clarifying the decision to award Sunderland a penalty in Tuesday’s clash with Leeds United.
Ethan Ampadu was penalised for handball in the 66th minute of the Premier League contest at Elland Road, which Habib Diarra converted from 12 yards.
That goal proved decisive in West Yorkshire as Sunderland saw out a 1-0 win in what was a game low in quality.
Leeds had a Joe Rodon goal ruled out moments earlier, which the Premier League have also moved to clear up.
Why were Sunderland awarded a penalty vs Leeds?
Leeds fans were still disappointed that Rodon’s goal was chalked out shortly after the hour mark when Sunderland were awarded a spot-kick.
Ampadu used his arm to push the ball away, but it was only after VAR intervened that referee Stuart Attwell’s initial decision not the point to the spot was overturned.
After a short delay, Attwell relayed his decision over the Elland Road sound system. The Premier League then put out an announcement via its Match Centre account on X.
“After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of no penalty to Sunderland,” the announcement read.
“Referee announcement: ‘After review, Leeds 4 deliberately handles the ball in the penalty area. My final decision is penalty kick’.”
On the decision to rule out Rodon’s goal – which was clearly offside – the announcement read: “VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Rodon was in an offside position and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”
Daniel Farke has extra reason to be furious with officials
While there could be no real complaints over the disallowed Rodon goal and Ampadu’s handball, Leeds were denied a clear penalty of their own in the first half.
Luke O’Nien had his arms around the neck of Pascal Struijk, yet referee Attwell failed to spot it.
More worryingly than that, though, was the fact that VAR dud not even intervene. If that was not clear and obvious, then what is?
Farke was shown a red card at full-time against Manchester City at the weekend and his mood will not be improved one bit by what he saw at Elland Road on Tuesday.
Unfortunately for Leeds, these big calls are now going against them pretty regularly and survival is still not yet guaranteed.
For more on the fallout from Leeds’ loss to Sunderland, head over to Football Insider.