Frequency interference and equipment issues are thought to be behind the double delays which marred Sunday’s North London derby, Daily Mail Sport understands.
Unimpressed officials at refs’ body PGMO are awaiting a report from tech providers Hawkeye following issues described by Gary Neville as ‘absolute nonsense’.
In the first half, the game was stopped just after seven minutes for six minutes, thanks to a problem with the ‘communications packs’ used by referee Peter Bankes and his officials to speak to each other and VAR teams at Stockley Park.
The delay prompted Neville, who was covering the match for Sky Sports, to hit out. ‘The game can’t be stopped for two minutes because a linesman can’t communicate with a referee,’ he said on Sky Sports commentary during the stoppage. ‘We did 100 years without it so we can play here. The whole crowd is now waiting because of an IT issue.’
After a few more minutes, Neville continued: ‘This is absolute nonsense. One of the most important games of the season, fantastic start to it, quick, and we are now two or three minutes stopped and they will have to warm up again, reset, an absolute shambles.’
The first problem was down to interference with frequency used by assistant referee Blake Antrobus, it is understood. The debacle was then repeated when Tottenham and Arsenal emerged for the second half with the match held up again for several minutes, this time due to an issue with the kit of the other assistant referee, Eddie Smart.
A full report is being prepared by Hawkeye, who have failed to respond to several requests for comment. Interference is a relatively common and basic occurrence, and eyebrows may well be raised that such a problem could hold up a key Premier League match being screened around the world.
This is not the first time this season that such issues have been suffered. It can also be disclosed that problems were experienced at the Aston Villa versus Manchester United match in December.
Following his title-chasing side’s eventual 4-1 victory over their neighbours Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was quizzed on the situation.
‘Every time we are [late] out of the dressing room, we get huge fines,’ he said.
‘So, I said to them who’s going to get this fine because that’s six, seven, eight, nine minutes? So, yeah, we’ve got one in the bag now.’
