LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 30: Referee, Simon Hooper shows a red card to Diogo Jota of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 30, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

This weekend, the VAR referees who mistakenly disallowed Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham will be back on the job for the Premier League.

Diaz’s goal was disallowed for offside by VAR official Darren England, who erroneously believed that the assistant referee had awarded the goal on the pitch and sided with the call.

However, Dan Cook served as the assistant VAR.

Reds supporters were outraged by the audio that PGMOL published following the incident (which you can listen to below), as well as by a story in The Times that England and Cook had officiated in the United Arab Emirates just 48 hours prior to the match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The fourth official for the match between Brentford and Nottingham Forest the next Sunday was supposed to be from England, but he was substituted.

Before being relieved of his duties, he was scheduled to serve as referee for the Championship match between Preston North End and Leicester City.

Cook, meanwhile, was relieved of duty for the Fulham vs. Chelsea London derby.

But now that they have both been reinstated, they will both take part in a Premier League game this weekend.

Cook will serve as an assistant referee for Manchester United’s trip to Sheffield United, and England will serve as the fourth official for the encounter between Brentford and Burnley. Both contests are scheduled for Saturday.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb said on “Match Officials Mic’d Up” what will be done to prevent a repeat of the Diaz saga: “We’ve put quite a few processes in place to guarantee the error that we saw doesn’t happen again.

“One of the things that this brought into clear view is the need to restate some of those VAR communication standards that are extremely helpful in preventing this type of incident from happening.

“We got all of the officials together, and we spoke about the need to go through that process very diligently.”

 

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