Official for VAR Darren Following his involvement in Liverpool’s loss to Tottenham, it has been asserted that England would not officiate the Reds for the remainder of the current campaign.
During the Reds’ sad 2-1 loss at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last Saturday, Luis Diaz had a goal incorrectly disallowed for offside.
After the PGMOL released the VAR audio of the communication breakdown, fans were able to identify one particularly egregious moment.
Following this, Jurgen Klopp claimed that the game should be replayed since VAR keeps making mistakes during crucial situations.
Darren England and Dan Cook, the two umpires who were implicated in the “human error,” were officially stepped down for the upcoming round of matches on Tuesday.
It has recently come to light, though, that England has been forbidden from refereeing Liverpool for the remainder of the season.
According to The Telegraph, the 37-year-old’s error will also have had an economic impact on him.
The report adds that in addition to a base pay of roughly £150,000, “his match fees for games he has lost amount to around £1,200.”
Klopp responded to the audio ahead of Liverpool’s Europa League match against Union Saint-Gilloise, saying that he thought a replay would be the only just outcome. The German said that he did not want to see authorities receive “further punishment.”
“The audio did not affect it at all,” Klopp said to the media, “I was not interested in what happened as I saw the outcome, we scored and it did not count.
“It’s really important that as big as football is and important as football is we deal with it in a proper way. All the people involved, the on-field referee, linesman, fourth official and especially in this case VAR, didn’t do that on purpose. It was an obvious mistake and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards.
“Some people probably don’t want me to say, but not as the manager of Liverpool so much, more as a football person, the only outcome should be a replay. That’s how it is. It probably will not happen.”
He continued: “The argument against [a replay] will probably be if we open that gate then everybody will ask for it. The situation is so unprecedented that I’m 56 years old and I’m absolutely used to wrong decisions, difficult decisions but something like that as far as I can remember never happened.
“That’s why I think a replay would be the right thing. If it happened again, a replay would be the right thing to do or the referee has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say, ‘Sorry we made a mistake but we can solve it. Let Liverpool score a goal and we can start from there.’
“I’m not angry with anybody, not at all. We should not go for them. They made a mistake and they felt horrible that night, I’m 100 per cent sure. That’s enough for me, nobody needs further punishment.”