Premier League Key Match Incidents panel vote on Tottenham and Newcastle United incident

The Premier League Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel is in the news once again.

The KMI panel has five members, made up of three former players and/or coaches, plus one representative each from the Premier League and PGMOL.

It was set up at the start of the 2022/23 season to give an independent assessment of decision-making rather than relying on the views of PGMOL or the clubs themselves.

The judgement is intended to provide an arm’s-length assessment of all major match incidents but gives weight to the decision of the referee in subjective situations, taking into account the laws of the game and the Premier League’s interpretation.

Anyway, the Premier League Independent Key Match Incidents Panel are making headlines again, this time regarding incidents in recent matches.

Amongst the latest games/incidents under scrutiny, the Premier League Key Match Incidents Panel have looked at the Tottenham v Newcastle United match that was played on Saturday 29 August.

After that match, Tottenham claiming that the opening goal from Anthony Elanga should not have stood because when Nico Gonzalez played his stunning diagonal long pass to Amir Dedic, the right-back was allegedly offside.

The KMI Panel have now ruled unanimously, five votes to none, that on the pitch the referee Peter Bankes was right not to rule out the goal for the supposed offside.

The panel also backed the VAR on the day, Darren England, voting 5 v 0 that he was correct in judging there was nothing wrong with the on the pitch referee’s decision.

The Premier League Key Match Incidents panel outcome then giving this additional detail:

Incident: Goal awarded with Dedic in an onside position (62min).
On-field decision outcome: Correct (5:0)
KMI Panel: The on-field decision to award the goal was supported, with the close margin falling within the thicker lines, leading to an onside outcome.
VAR intervention outcome: Correct (5:0)

What are the thicker lines?
‘From the 2021/22 season, the offside process was amended and thicker lines were introduced when assessing offside decisions. This was done to give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker and to prevent marginal, or “toenail”, offsides.

When the Premier League began using semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) towards the end of the 2024/25 season, the system continued to apply the existing thicker lines, maintaining both consistency and the integrity of the competition.

This came into play when Dedic was played onside by Robertson in the build-up to Newcastle’s first goal. The use of the thicker lines meant that Dedic was in an onside position, and the goal scored by Elanga was correctly allowed to stand.’

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