02 October 2023 , 12:44
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Liverpool have made their grievances with Premier League officiating public, after their controversial defeat to Tottenham on Saturday.
The Reds were beaten 2-1 in dramatic fashion, with Joel Matip scoring a last-gasp own goal. But Liverpool were left furious after Luis Diaz's first-half effort was incorrectly chalked off for offside. Replays showed that the Colombian was onside when the ball was played through to him, but the on-field decision was confirmed.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) subsequently apologised for what they described as a "significant human error". The PGMOL also confirmed Liverpool would be offered an immediate apology, with a full investigation required. Both the VAR from the game, Darren England and his assistant Dan Cook would be stood down from duties.
However, in an extraordinary move, Liverpool released a damning statement in response suggesting "sporting integrity had been undermined". Within the strongly worded release, the Premier League giants also confirmed they "will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution".
So after another galling weekend for Premier League officials - and their boss Howard Webb - we've asked our Mirror Sport team what comes next? How can Liverpool actually be appeased, whether they were right to go public, and the future of VAR in football...
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Andy Dunn
AS VAR ‘mistakes’ go, the one at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a freak.
It was a slightly bizarre human error and the PGMOL have coughed to it. That should be the end of it.
Jurgen Klopp was suitably critical but dignified in his immediate response - unlike, it would turn out, the club executives who came out with that ridiculous statement on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp just about managed to keep his emotions in check, with Liverpool releasing an official statement a day later (PA)Questioning ‘sporting integrity’? Are they implying someone actually deliberately cheated Liverpool out of the goal? ‘Exploring all options’? Is that some sort of threat?
Liverpool were on the wrong end of a shocker on Saturday - they will be on the right end of a shocker another day. Klopp will now get grilled on what exactly that statement means and it is a distraction he could do without.
John Cross
Liverpool are well within their rights to issue a statement. Frankly, I’m in favour of anything that shines a light on the VAR farce which feels like it is getting worse with every howler.
Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal felt like a tipping point. The clubs have had enough. Sorry, but if statements are being put out about their players and managers then it’s reached a point where the clubs probably want their say.
The phrase “explore the range of options available” is the one that sticks out. It’s an underlying threat that is never going to come into play.
Luis Diaz's first-half strike was incorrectly chalked off by officials, despite a VAR checkPremier League clubs effectively sign up to a private members’ club when they are in the top flight. They have to abide by decisions - even when the refs and VAR get them horribly, horribly wrong.
The only time I can recall in recent years of a club stepping outside of that is when the Big Six signed up to the European Super Club which included, dare I say it, Liverpool.
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You can’t play this game again. You can improve VAR. And PGMOL boss Howard Webb needs to get cracking. It was always going to take time… but ten months in, it shouldn’t be getting worse.
What is still most baffling to me is why referee Simon Hooper and VAR Darren England did not roll play back and give the goal. They knew their mistake immediately. But they followed protocol which means when a game restarts there’s no going back. What a pair of robotic idiots.
Neil Moxley
Just bin the thing. Forget VAR. If it wasn't before, this situation is now an utter embarrassment. Referees and assistants made mistakes before. They're making them now, so what's the difference?
At least before VAR they didn't have this wretched hand-wringing every time one of the big clubs - and it is mainly the big clubs - feels hard done by.
Compare what happened to Wolves or Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford this season. At least on a par with the mistake - and yes, folks, it was a mistake - that Liverpool suffered on Saturday night. Social media was awash with the usual suspects moaning about the inequity of it all.
Now the Reds have issued a statement. What, pray, do they hope to achieve? The game won't be replayed. The officials won't be sanctioned.
All that's happened is that Liverpool have put more pressure on officialdom instead, perhaps, of looking at themselves. For instance, Diogo Jota's dismissal was needless and, arguably, cost them the game. Why no statement of contrition over that?
No, let's give the referees a kicking, instead. Far easier to blame them. So forget VAR, keep goal line technology because that (should be) objective.
Let's go back to the way it was - even for a one-season trial period - until we work out what the hell is happening to our game. They can start with handball. Another dog's breakfast.
But VAR is just turning the game into a petty squabble. It's trial by television and sucking spontaneous joy out of it. So, bin it now. And let's restore some sanity.
Mike Walters
Whether or not you agree with Liverpool’s statement, finally a major club has articulated every fan’s despair and revulsion.
No jumping aboard bandwagons here - I’ve been banging on about VAR as a blight on football like noisy neighbours banging their dustbin lids for years. Scrap it, bin it, bury it in the nearest landfill and put a dozen sticks of dynamite under it just to make sure it doesn’t come back.
If we must put up with it any longer, hire a team of accomplished ex-players to assist the VAR officials in their Stockley Park bunker - because some of them don’t appear to know what they are looking at.
The use of technology in the Premier League is back under the microscope (AFP via Getty Images)My preferred solution remains unchanged - a cricket-style decision review system where managers can lodge appeals against perceived injustices from the dugout.
But we can’t go on like this. Liverpool’s statement has put the game on notice: Sooner or later a VAR gaffe will be so bad it will end up in the High Court, with m’learned friends tearing PGMOL to shreds.
It wasn’t a deliberate mistake, but the Luis Diaz decision stinks - I can detect the noxious stench from my balcony 1,000 miles away.
Daniel Orme
VAR is no longer fit for purpose. A system that has been designed to eliminate ‘human error’ from the game has actually been debilitated by it.
Liverpool have every right to feel aggrieved and their calls for a major review into the technology - and the officials that are tasked with using it - should be heeded. With just seven matches of the season complete, constant mistakes from officials appear to be the only talking point so far.
There has to be a major review into the incident. However, replaying the game or awarding retrospective points would set a dangerous precedent across the footballing landscape.
The Reds - whilst their complaints are justified - are not the only side to have been on the wrong side of a poor refereeing performance and will certainly not be the last. Bournemouth slipped out of the Premier League at the end of the 2019/20 season by just a solitary point.
Aston Villa picked up that point due to a 0-0 draw with Sheffield United - goal line technology failing to award a goal to the Blades. That defeat would have seen Villa relegated and Bournemouth stay up - in what is an even bigger financial loss than the gap between third and fourth.
With any change to the Liverpool goal, clubs might look to take action more often with or without VAR which would trigger chaos across the leagues. They need to take PGMOL to task but any hope of changing the result will surely end in frustration and even more confusion.
Sam Meade
Liverpool have every right to be fuming and every right to have their say. For a long time I've despised the circus that doesn't allow players, managers or clubs to say anything. We want to hear their thoughts, we want them to communicate, so they can't be handcuffed whenever they speak their mind.
Authorities are able to make mistakes and just throw out the corporate "an internal review will be conducted" line. For too long it has happened and things need to change and if individuals or teams have frustrations, they should be allowed to air them.
When it comes to VAR, I do feel for Howard Webb, he's a very competent individual who is trying to drive positive change and up the standards. Too often though he's having to come out and apologise for those he manages. Mistakes happen, we're all human, we get it.
But when every fan, player and manager can see a foul, a handball, an offside - but the only group who can't see it are the referees, eventually you have to start taking action. Taking officials off games doesn't seem to be working - maybe we need to look elsewhere for our referees. The idea of replaying games though is unmanageable and simply unrealistic.
Chief of referees Howard Webb has been forced into another embarrassing apology (Twitter/@SkySportsPL)Ben Husband
Liverpool have every right to feel aggrieved, but talk of sporting integrity coming into focus sets a dangerous precedent. They were on the wrong end of a stinker, just as almost every Premier League team has been at one point or another.
So talks of “escalation and resolution” appear little more than empty threats. But what this does feel like is a clear line in the sand of how far clubs are willing to be messed about and Liverpool should be applauded for going public.
“It’s not the technology it’s the people using it” is the most consistent response when stuff like this happens, but that’s missing the point. Until officials are ready to use it properly, it needs to be significantly stripped back. It would be an extraordinary climb down from league bosses, but the direction of travel appears to only be moving in one way.
Conor Mummery
Nothing will change on the back of Liverpool's statement, whether they're 'exploring options' or not. The club obviously won't be expecting an offer to replay the game, despite calls from an alarming amount of fans on social media.
You wouldn't believe it from the reaction, but this isn't the first time an officiating error has impacted a game of football. Liverpool have as many go for them as against them, give or take, as every other team in the league does.
The only glaring officiating error in this game was the failure to award Luis Diaz's goal, Curtis Jones being awarded a red card for a foul plenty of players have been giving their marching orders for and Diogo Jota picking up two silly yellow cards shouldn't enter the equation.
There should of course be a transparent investigation, including the release of the audio, into the offside decision to ensure it doesn't happen again. The officials involved have rightly apologised and been taken off duty for the coming weekend, and they may well be demoted on the back of this for a period of time, and that's as far as this needs to go.
Darren England was dropped from Sunday's fixtures after his gaffe in the capital (Visionhaus/Getty Images)Tom Blow
It would be silly for this game to be replayed, but it's clear something needs to be done about PGMOL. Liverpool supporters' group 'Spirit of Shankly' have called for an independent panel to be established to police the refereeing body, and it's hard to disagree with that.
Very few, if any, of these referees have played at professional level. A small group of current and former players should be established to oversee PGMOL because it seems that no one is holding them to account for these continuous mistakes.
Howard Webb often releases the audio between the on-field referee and the VAR official after games, but that has only highlighted their incompetence. Referees also need to stop sticking so rigorously to the rule book. They need to use common sense and be pragmatic, like most people do in their jobs.
Right now, all we're witnessing is Webb apologising for errors. We're all sick of it.
Thomas Wathen
Another Premier League weekend and VAR taking centre stage yet again with another embarrassing decision.
Liverpool were right to question the use of the term “significant human error” in the PGMOL statement because it makes no sense how VAR officials believed the on-field referee gave a goal when the "check complete" call led to the score remaining 0-0 and a free-kick to Tottenham in their own half.
However, both the PGMOL and Liverpool statements will do nothing to change the situation because any expectation that the match will be replayed will open Pandora's Box of complaints from other managers, owners, and players with armfuls of evidence wanting their own piece of history changed due to VAR mistakes.
Referee Simon Hooper checks the monitor during Tottenham vs LiverpoolHow can VAR be improved? Maybe with more technology such as a semi-automated offside system - or VAR officials being more transparent when decisions are being made to explain the situation.
We all sit and wait for the Premier League to release audio files weeks after our teams have had decisions go against them, but like they do in rugby, this audio should be live and the decisions clear so mistakes like this are avoided.