Liverpool suffered a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in a match marked by highly controversial refereeing decisions.
According to reports, VAR official Darren England did not intervene in Liverpool’s loss at Tottenham Hotspur to award Luis Diaz’s first-half goal because he believed that the on-field decision had already been given as a goal.
Diaz celebrated what he thought was putting Liverpool ahead, but the offside flag was raised, leading to a quick VAR check and the awarding of a free-kick to Spurs. Interestingly, no image of the offside lines was shown during this review.
After the game, the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) admitted to a “significant human error” that led to Luis Diaz’s onside goal not being awarded. This error occurred because VAR incorrectly failed to overturn the on-field decision.
Dale Johnson at ESPN has reported that the mistake made by the VAR team was misinterpreting the on-field decision. They believed that by stating “check complete,” they were concurring that the goal should be awarded when, in reality, it had not been. Liverpool ultimately lost the game 2-1 and finished the match with only nine players after Diogo Jota received two yellow cards in the second half.
A PGMOL statement afterwards read: “PGMOL acknowledges a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool.
“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention. However, the VAR failed to intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, responded to the statement, questioning the helpfulness of such errors. He referenced a similar situation in the past, the Man Utd game, and pointed out that no points were awarded for such mistakes. Klopp expressed his initial hope that VAR would simplify matters but acknowledged the swift decision and its impact on the game’s momentum. Despite the difficulty, he commended his team for handling the situation admirably.