REFEREE chiefs admitted a massive blunder after their VAR disasterclass WRONGLY ruled out Liverpool’s opener at Tottenham.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited confirmed a “significant human error” meant the VAR official FORGOT to tell on-field referee Simon Hooper to change his decision.
Liverpool forward Luis Diaz thought he had put the Reds in front at Tottenham.
But the assistant’s flag went up to chalk it off.
Replays, though, appeared to show Cristian Romero playing Diaz on when Mo Salah released the pass. However, after a very brief stoppage, the goal was ruled out.
VAR Darren England and his assistant Dan Cook should have looked at the goal in depth but the green or red lines to prove whether or not Diaz was onside did not show on the screen.
SunSport understands bungling England clearly saw Diaz was ONSIDE but forgot what the on-field decision was.
The blundering official then incredibly gave the “check complete” signal, believing he was AWARDING Diaz’s goal when, in fact, he was allowing play to continue at 0-0.
It is not clear why the decision could not be reversed once England realised his mistake – which surely must have been instantly.
“PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool.”
The PGMOL – who oversee the referees for the Premier League, EFL and The FA – eventually confirmed after full-time that there had been a major blunder from the pair in the VAR room at Stockley Park.
A bombshell statement said: “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v 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 conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error.
“PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
Reacting live to the statement on Sky Sports, Gary Neville said: “Oh no. Oh no. No, no. Kelly seriously.
“We get VAR up on the commentary box before anyone else does and I thought, ‘That’s onside.’
“We get a preview of the pictures up on the gantry, we get the actual commentary from the VAR officials to the referee.
“And then all of a sudden you just hear in your ear, ‘Check complete.’
“What? No lines. It was so quick. It was too quick. Something was obviously wrong.
“That is unbelievable. That is a bad one, a really bad one. They say it’s significant… that is VERY significant. Oh no.” Liverpool, who were down to NINE men when Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota saw red, lost the thrilling Premier League clash 2-1 when Joel Matip scored a 96th-minute own goal.
Klopp managed to resist the urge to launch a full-scale attack on the referees – but still slammed the performance of the officials.
The Kop boss fumed: “I never saw a game like this with the most unfair circumstances, crazy decisions. The first red card, Curtis steps on the ball and goes over. Not a bad tackle.
“First Jota yellow was not a yellow. Then he gets a second and to defend with nine players is tricky.
“The offside goal. That is not offside when you see it, they drew their lines wrong.
VAN DIJK DESPAIR
“The ball is between Mo’s legs, they drew the line wrong and didn’t judge the moment when Mo passed the ball right.
“It is so tough to deal with it.”
Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk was asked if he is losing faith in VAR.
The Dutchman told the BBC: “I’m losing faith is difficult to say. The VAR should be absolutely clear and obvious with everything they’re deciding on.
“I’ve seen the still back, I think 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.” – The Sun