The referees’ organization PGMOL has acknowledged that the ruling to disallow Luis Diaz’s goal in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, where Liverpool played with nine men, was “a significant human error.”
At 0-0 and with the Reds a man down, Diaz’s goal was ruled out following an unusually quick VAR check by Darren England, in which the customary offside line graphic was not shown, PGMOL stated.
“PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred,” the statement read.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review.”
The goal scored by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for an offside infraction by the on-field team of match officials. This decision constituted a glaring and unmistakable factual mistake, warranting the awarding of the goal through VAR intervention.
Unfortunately, the VAR did not intervene.
In addition to the disallowed goal, the Reds also suffered setbacks with the red card dismissals of Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota. Despite their determined efforts to keep Spurs at bay, Liverpool ultimately succumbed to a stoppage-time Joel Matip own goal, resulting in their defeat.
Speaking after the match, Jurgen Klopp said his side’s defeat came in “the most unfair circumstances” with “crazy decisions”.
“That is not offside when you see it,” he told Sky Sports.
“The ball is between Mo [Salah]’s legs, they drew the line wrong and didn’t judge the moment when Mo passed the ball right.”
Klopp said the statement “doesn’t help” and referenced the apology Wolves received for the decision not to award a penalty at Manchester United earlier in the season.
“I don’t think we should talk too much about that because it doesn’t help at all,” said Klopp.
“Wolves got a similar statement, or apology. They didn’t get a point out of United and we won’t get a point today so it doesn’t help.
“I am pretty sure no one is making mistakes on purpose but it still happened and at this moment I don’t know why. [We] scored a fantastic goal – would it have changed the game? I don’t know. But probably, because goals help.”
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said he is “losing faith” in VAR after the referees’ incorrect decision to disallow Diaz’s goal without any intervention from Stockley Park.
“I’m losing faith, [which] is difficult to say,” he said.
“The VAR should be absolutely clear and obvious with everything they’re deciding on. I’ve seen the still back – on live TV there were no lines being shown. It’s all a bit strange, I don’t know who was in the VAR room and making that decision. It’s not a good thing, it doesn’t look well either. It is what it is, we lost.”
Gary Neville told Sky Sports the decision was “horrendous” and said it was “clear for everyone” to see that Diaz was onside.
“That is unbelievable! It is very significant. I have defended VAR and offsides being a matter of fact, but there have been a few which I thought were wrong in recent weeks,” the former Manchester United defender said.
“It was all too quick. That is a horrendous one. It is clearly onside, clear for everyone. Something hasn’t been right the last few weeks. They are picking the wrong cameras to draw the lines on. It is weird.”
Jamie Redknapp added: “Everyone will agree, this is onside and makes you wonder how many other decisions they got wrong. It looks like they got that wrong by a yard. It is not a good look. For me they got that so badly wrong. We are making things so complicated.”
“Curtis steps on the ball and goes over. Not a bad tackle. It looks different in slow motion. He steps full throttle on the ball and goes over the ball. That is unlucky,” Klopp said.
Neville added: “It looks bad but his foot just slips off the top of the ball – that is not a red card for me. He has gone in genuinely. My initial reaction as an ex-player is that isn’t a player looking to do the opposition player. If you see the end part in slow motion, you will think red card, but you have to look at the whole thing.”
Former Liverpool and England defender Stephen Warnock agreed, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “I think it is very harsh. The big thing is that VAR are slowing the incident down as opposed to the initial challenge.
“He gets the top of the ball and then his foot goes over the ball into the ankle of Bissouma. You can see both sides to the argument, though. I understand why the Spurs fans are disappointed with the tackle but everything looks worse slowed down.”
In a previous incident this season, Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister received a red card against Bournemouth. However, after an appeal, the red card was rescinded, even though the referee’s on-field decision had initially been upheld by VAR.
This incident is not an isolated case of VAR making incorrect decisions or failing to intervene when necessary.
In February, referee Lee Mason departed from the PGMOL after an incident where he failed to draw VAR’s offside lines correctly, resulting in the approval of a Brentford goal against Arsenal.
In that same month, during Brighton’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, an offside line was incorrectly drawn, leading to the wrongful disallowance of Pervis Estupinan’s goal. The offside line was mistakenly drawn parallel to Palace defender James Tomkins instead of his teammate Marc Guehi, who was positioned behind him.
Furthermore, PGMOL admitted that Brighton should have been awarded a penalty in their April match against Tottenham. Despite initial appeals being rejected by referee Stuart Attwell, VAR did not recommend a reversal of the decision or a review of the footage on the TV monitor. Subsequently, VAR official Michael Salisbury was excluded from the following round of Premier League fixtures.
In December of the previous year, an independent panel found that video assistant referees had made six incorrect interventions by that point in the 2022-23 season and had overlooked another six situations where their intervention was warranted.
