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Liverpool has reacted to the PGMOL’s apology, following Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal as they lost 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
The body in charge of refereeing in England, PGMOL, has already admitted that Díaz had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside after the VAR, Darren England, and assistant VAR, Dan Cook, wrongly thought the goal had been given by the on-field officials.
Diaz thought he had put the Reds in front in the 34th minute, only for the flag to go up for offside.
The VAR team wrongly thought the onfield decision was “goal,” quickly identified that Díaz was onside and told the onfield team “check complete” to confirm the goal.
But when referee Simon Hooper was told this, he understood the decision made by his assistant on the field as being correct – which the assistant had given as offside.
That meant that rather than the decision being changed to goal, it remained disallowed.
Liverpool’s statement reads: “Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined.
We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.
It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.
That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.
This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.
In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.
