In their statement regretting VAR’s failure to deem Luis Diaz’s goal onside in Saturday’s defeat to Tottenham, Liverpool said they will “explore a range of options.”
The nine-man Reds lost 2-1 to Spurs, but the outcome might have been different if Diaz’s goal in the first half had stood.
Even though Curtis Jones had already been dismissed at this time, Liverpool believed they had taken the lead when Diaz met a through ball from Mohamed Salah and struck the bottom corner, but the offside flag was later raised and the goal was disallowed.
Replays revealed that Cristian Romero was effectively playing Diaz onside, hence this call ought to have been overturned.
VAR PGMOL said that’significant human error’ was to blame for Liverpool not scoring the opening goal, and Darren England acknowledged that his review of the decision was complete under the impression that referee Simon Hooper had given the goal.
The result of a VAR review cannot be changed after the referee commands play to resume.
Liverpool has finally issued a statement regarding the contentious events of Saturday.
“Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night,” the statement adds. It is obvious that the rules of the game were not correctly applied, which compromised the integrity of sports.
“We completely acknowledge the demands that match officials face, but the introduction and use of VAR is designed to lessen, not increase, these pressures.
“Therefore, it is unacceptable that no subsequent intervention was made and that adequate time was not provided to allow the right decision to be made.
It is particularly unacceptable that these mistakes have already been labeled as “significant human error.” Only the review, in full transparency, should determine any and all results.
“This is crucial for the accuracy of decisions made in the future because it applies to all clubs, and lessons learned will be applied to systems to make sure situations like this don’t happen again.
Given the obvious need for escalation and resolution, “we will explore the range of options available” in the interim.
