Pundits and fans alike have lambasted the baffling decision to disallow a goal from Luis Diaz in the game between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.
The decision to disallow Diaz’s goal wasn’t the only contentious call of the afternoon – Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones were also given red cards by referee Simon Hooper, forcing the Reds to play over half an hour of the game with nine men.
What did PGMOL’s statement say following Tottenham Vs Liverpool?
The statement from PGMOL reads as follows [via Premier League website]: “PGMOL acknowledges a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool.
“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention.
“However, the VAR failed to intervene. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
What did the pundits say regarding the decision?
Speaking on Match of the Day, Alan Shearer said: “It’s incomprehensible, Gary. It’s just… I don’t know. The one bit of VAR we learned we can’t argue about was this [offside decisions]. Now, this is going to put so much doubt in decision that have gone on beforehand and that are going to go one in the future because of this.
“It is a monumental error. He is clearly onside. We actually spotted it straight away, within a second or two we said ‘hang on, that’s not offside’.
“Now, what we’re led to believe is that Darren England, who was in the VAR hub, and Daniel Cook as the assistant VAR [official], they’ve done what they should have done in terms of drawing their lines.
“For some reason, [Hooper] has had a huge lapse in concentration – instead of [allowing the goal to stand] he’s instead said ‘check complete’.
“Now, my argument to that would be: what is the point in having an assistant VAR [official]? I’ve worked it out – there’s about 30 to 35 seconds between him making the decision and then allowing kick off.
Fellow pundit Micah Richards added: “It’s time, isn’t it though? Everyone is talking about ‘VAR’s taking too long’. They’ve panicked in the moment, made a mistake and it has been a horrible mistake.”