Ben Brereton Diaz ‘a disgrace’ blasts ex-Premier League ref Mark Halsey who gives verdict on weekend’s big calls

BEN BRERETON DIAZ's reaction to a 'headbutt' from Fabian Schar has been labelled a 'disgrace'.

That's the view of ex-Premier League referee Mark Halsey.

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Schar was sent off in Newcastle's 1-0 win over Southampton during the weekend when Diaz dramatically collapsed to the ground after a coming together of heads during a fiery confrontation.

In the first episode of SunSport's The Whistleblower, Halsey said: "Fabian Schar should be more experienced than that.

"The whistle's gone, the game stops, and he doesn't need to react in the way he did.

"But having said that, Diaz, I thought, was a disgrace in the way he went down, because if you look at the incident, they both come together, they both put their heads together.

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And the way that Diaz went down, honestly, he should be up on the charge as well."

Halsey has also been running the rule over the weekend's other big calls.

Among the incidents as the Prem returned was some embarrassment for VAR officials when the touchline screen failed to work at Everton.

Referee Simon Hooper was asked to go and review a huge penalty call, but the screen failed to show him the incident, forcing the official to use a back-up before he overturned his original decision and denied the Toffees a spot-kick.

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Halsey said: "VAR was correct in recommending a review to Simon Hooper. Now, yes, obviously when he's gone over, you can see that the monitor is not working.

"That's not very professional. Didn't look good. But what you can see is that Simon Hooper is looking down at the ground. So obviously there was a replacement.

"It must've been a laptop or some sort of monitor in a case on the floor. So you can clearly see him looking down. So there was a backup screen there, but it wasn't very professional, was it?"

Watch the full episode of The Whistleblower at the top of this article, including the moment Halsey claims the referee will have been wanting the ground to open up and swallow him.

Changes to the Premier League for 2024/25

NOTHING stays the same forever.

And that includes the Premier League, which is making a number of tweaks this season.

Team news will now be released 75 MINUTES before kick-off, 15 minutes earlier than had been the case before.

Things could get crowded on the touchline, with the number of substitutes permitted to warm-up boosted from three players per team to FIVE.

There's also a change to how added time is calculated when a team scores a goal, an update to the 'multiball' system and the introduction of semi-automated offsides - but not straight away.

Go here to read about all the changes to the Premier League for 2024/25.