October 1st 2023.
Luis Diaz was denied a goal for Liverpool after being incorrectly ruled offside in their match against Tottenham on Saturday. The assistant referee put up his flag for offside, but television replays clearly showed that Diaz was onside when Salah had played the pass.
The PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), the referees' body, acknowledged their error in a statement after the match, saying that the goal should have been awarded through VAR intervention, but the VAR failed to intervene.
It turns out that the VAR official, Darren England, mistakenly thought that the onfield decision was a 'goal' and identified that Diaz was onside. He then told the onfield team 'check complete' to confirm that Diaz's goal was legitimate. Unfortunately, the referee, Simon Hooper, believed that 'check complete' meant that the VAR team had confirmed the initial decision that Diaz was offside and continued play.
When informed of the PGMOL's statement admitting the mistake Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was not pleased. He said: "Who does that help now? We had that situation in the Wolves-Man United game. Did Wolves get the points? No. We will not get points for it so it doesn’t help. Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions on field but we all thought when VAR comes in that it might make things easier. I don’t know why the people… are they that much under pressure? Today the decision was made really quick I would say for that goal. It changed the momentum of the game, so that’s how it is."
VAR is under major scrutiny once again after this incident. The PGMOL has promised to conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. However, no amount of review will change the fact that Luis Diaz was onside when the offside line was drawn and Liverpool were denied an opportunity to take the lead in the match.
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