How Liverpool fell victim to a blatant refereeing and VAR error
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A very loud scandal erupted in the English Premier League (EPL) related to refereeing and the use of the VAR system. Liverpool have equated the astonishing mistake they made in their loss to Tottenham to undermining their “sporting integrity”. When the score was 0:0, the referees responsible for the work of VAR did not overturn the decision of the team on the field, which did not count the clear goal of Luis Diaz due to an imaginary offside. This is not the first time this season that clubs have had questions about the effectiveness of the system.
The main news of the next weekend in the English Premier League was an extremely harsh statement published by the Liverpool club. In it, he calls the episode from his Saturday away match against Tottenham “undermining the integrity of sport”, threatening to consider “the full range of available options” to establish justice.
He was central in the seventh round of the English Championship. It was a meeting between two clubs belonging to the leading group. Tottenham was able to win – 2:1 – over an opponent who lost two players – Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota – due to deletions, snatching it in the last seconds thanks to an own goal from Joel Matip, and is now in second position in the championship after Manchester City. However, the statement referred to an emergency from the first half of the match, which happened when the score was 0:0.
It became a news hit in the British media for good reason. In football you rarely see such strange and ridiculous refereeing errors. Liverpool’s attack ended with forward Luis Diaz hitting the goal. Referee Simon Hooper, however, disallowed the goal after seeing the touch referee raise his flag to signal offside. Meanwhile, the video replays clearly showed that Diaz had avoided offside while receiving the ball with a reserve, and the spectators watching the game were waiting for the usual procedure when VAR promptly corrects the referee’s decision. In this case, the adjustment seemed to be something absolutely routine. Meanwhile, the goal was never counted. Tottenham took a free kick, after which it was no longer possible to re-initiate the chance check according to the regulations, and soon opened the scoring.
It turned out that VAR did analyze the episode. But neither the head of the team responsible for his work, Darren England, nor his assistant Dan Cook strangely managed not to pay attention to the actions of their colleagues on the field, thinking that they counted the ball from Luis Diaz. England eventually sent Hooper the standard “review complete” message, meaning VAR confirmed his verdict was correct.
After the match, Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp, without holding back his emotions, said that his club suffered defeat in the “most unfair circumstances” due to the “crazy decisions” of the referees, questioning the red cards his players received. Klopp was also supported by famous former English players who have now become popular football experts, such as Gary Neville and Alan Shearer. Shearer described the incident in Tottenham’s match with Liverpool as a “terrible day” for the whole of English football, after which it is necessary to think about “restoring trust” in referees and VAR.
Harsh criticism forced the Professional Association of Arbitrators (PGMOL) to defend itself. Although in fact, her explanation, in essence, only states the fact of a “significant” mistake and attributes it to the “human factor”.
Meanwhile, the BBC suggests that the scandal will develop. According to him, Liverpool intends to file claims against both PGMOL, which suspended Darren England and Dan Cook from working at Sunday’s matches between Nottingham and Brentford and Fulham and Chelsea, and the FA. It was she who authorized the travel of England, Cook and Michael Oliver, who had the status of reserve referee in the London match, to the UAE. There they officiated a local league game between Al Ain and Sharjah clubs on Thursday. The referees returned home just a day before Tottenham’s meeting with Liverpool, and they had minimal time left to prepare for it.
In addition, The Guardian points out that problems with refereeing and VAR have already become a trend in the current English season. For example, in the first round, despite the presence of a system that is designed to eliminate gross mistakes, an undisputed penalty was not awarded against Manchester United in the match with Wolverhampton. Representatives of other clubs complained about VAR and referees.
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