Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool at Tottenham was incorrectly disallowed for offside after the VAR mistakenly believed that the on-field decision had been to award the goal.
The PGMOL admitted immediately after Tottenham’s 2-1 win that “a significant human error occurred” when Diaz’s strike was ruled out and “this was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention.”
It was initially believed that VAR Darren England had failed to check whether a Tottenham defender had played Diaz onside by drawing the on-screen lines.
But, in a remarkable twist, it has now emerged that the VAR incorrectly thought the on-field decision was that a goal had been awarded, when in fact it hadn’t been. This resulted in England, despite realising that Diaz was onside, relaying a message of ‘check complete’ and the goal being ruled out.
Why didn’t the VAR team then stop the game?
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was frustrated with the decisions that went against his side, as they saw two red cards and a disallowed goal against Tottenham.
It remains unknown when England and Assistant VAR Dan Cook first realised their mistake. Following England’s message of ‘check complete’ to on-field referee Simon Cooper, the game restarted less than a minute after Diaz had scored his goal with a free-kick to Tottenham.
With the game ‘live’ again, it’s thought that the VAR team felt unable to intervene.
“I’m pretty sure if you look at the ref’s face they were thinking of taking the game back and say it was a goal,” responded Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville on X.
“There is a moment where the ref looks sick! On the gantry ( you can’t see this at home ) the VAR screen was locked on the offside decision whilst the game went on. They knew pretty much straight away but for some reason didn’t go back or can’t through rules go back!”
Fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher added: “It’s an horrendous mistake no matter how they did it. But if they knew just after the Spurs free-kick was taken that they’d made a huge mistake, it’s nonsense they can’t bring it back just because a free-kick has been taken.”