VAR officials at Stockley Park have admitted that a 'human error' was made and Tottenham midfielder Giovani Lo Celso should have been sent off in the defeat to Chelsea.
However, despite the admission of a mistake, the Argentine midfielder will not face retrospective action and will be available for Spurs' hosting against Wolves next week.
The Spurs midfielder was neither booked or sent off after catching Azpilicueta on the shin with his studs, seeming to go over the top of the ball when he made his challenge.
However Lo Celso, who was later booked in the 82nd minute for a challenge on Mason Mount, will not face a retrospective ban despite the clear error.
Under PGMOL rules, retrospective disciplinary action is reserved for incidents "not captured by the match officials or VAR".
As the incident was seen by the on-field officials and looked at by VAR, it does not fall into the area where retrospective action can be taken - despite their own admission that a red card should have been issued.
That will certainly aggrieve Wolves, who face Spurs next weekend, and will likely irritate the other sides involved in the chase for Champions League football.
The PGMOL initially clarified the reason why David Coote had opted not to send the Argentine off.
"Not a clear and obvious error and there was nowhere else for Lo Celso to put his foot," they said in a statement.
Then, just minutes later, BT Sport revealed that they had been told by the PGMOL that a human error had been made and that Lo Celso should have been handed his marching orders.
But former Premier League referee Peter Walton believes the correct call was made by Coote.
"They had a lot of looks at it and the reason why is the angle," he said on BT Sport.
"You can see Lo Celso is going over the ball to drag it back and it is that action that indicates if he stamped or not.
"That is why it took a long time but they ultimately came to the right decision."
