Premier League: Why the offside lines were not drawn during Liverpool’s clash with Tottenham
VAR have come under scrutiny again following yet another blunder in the Premier League. The most recent incident came in Tottenham’s home clash with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Luis Diaz thought he had put the Reds ahead in the first half only to see the flag raised by the assistant referee. The goal was ruled out despite replays clearing showing Diaz was being played onside by Spurs defender Cristian Romero. Fans may have noticed that there were no offside lines drawn during the VAR review.
PGMOL have since admitted that Diaz’s strike in the first half was incorrectly ruled out for offside.
Klopp’s side would go on to lose 2-1 to Ange Postecoglou’s side on Saturday evening after Joel Matip’s late own goal secured three points for the hosts.
Mail Sport breaks down why the offside lines were not drawn during Liverpool’s clash with Tottenham.
Why were the offside lines not drawn?
Darren England was the man on VAR duty for Sunday’s clash between Tottenham and Liverpool.
When looking at Diaz’s position, it was blatantly clear that the winger was onside. It was initially believed that England had failed to check with the Tottenham defender had played Diaz onside by drawing the on-screen lines.
However, England mistakenly thought that he was checking the goal rather than a disallowed goal.
He then told the onfield team ‘check complete’ to confirm that the goal was legit. However, referee Simon Hooper believed that the ‘check complete’ meant that the VAR had confirmed the initial decision was that Diaz was offside.
Two seconds after VAR said ‘check complete,’ Spurs took the free kick – which then created a cut-off point.
There was roughly 40 seconds between Diaz’s strike and play being restarted, while there was less than 10 seconds between viewers being shown the review and the check being complete.
As eluded to, the PGMOL have since apologised for the ‘significant human error’ that saw Diaz’s strike disallowed, with officials Darren England and Dan Cook dropped for upcoming fixtures as a result.
What have PGMOL said?
PGMOL released a statement after the game acknowledging that Diaz’s strike was incorrectly ruled out for offside.
‘PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool,’ the statement began.
‘The goal but 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.’
What have Liverpool said?
Liverpool took the step of releasing a statement and accused the PGMOL of undermining sporting integrity.
Their issue is not around the decision, more how the laws were not applied – and how the obvious correct outcome was to have been achieved – due to a calamitous failure of VAR protocols.
Posting the statement on Sunday night, they said: ‘Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined.
‘We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.
‘It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.
‘That such failings have already been categorised as ‘significant human error’ is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.’
