Referees Organisation PGMOL Admits ‘Significant Error’ In Luis Diaz Offside Decision In Tottenham Vs Liverpool Match

A contentious Premier League match between Tottenham and Liverpool this Saturday, September 30, saw the Reds finish with just nine men.

Spurs won the game 2-1 with a goal in the 96th minute after Joel Matip deflected the ball into his own net beyond a stranded Alisson.

Curtis Jones picked up a red card in the 26th minute for what was judged by VAR to have been a dangerous tackle on Tottenham’s 27-year-old Mali international midfielder, Yves Bissouma.

A Luis Diaz goal was ruled offside by VAR

A highly questionable decision followed in the 34th minute when Luis Diaz appeared to beat the offside trap. The Colombian winger raced past Guglielmo Vicario to latch onto a glorious pass from Mo Salah before slotting the ball into the bottom corner of the Spurs net.

The linesman immediately flagged for offside with referee Simon Hooper’s whistle cutting the Liverpool celebrations short.

A subsequent VAR check by Darren England in Stockley Park upheld the offside decision to rule out what would have been the opening goal of the game.

In the 36th minute, the home side’s captain, Son Heung-min, clipped a lovely pass from Richarlison into the Liverpool goal to put Ange Postecoglou’s side in front.

Liverpool drew level just before halftime

Cody Gakpo threw Jurgen Klopp’s men a lifeline when he made an incredible shot on the turn to level the scores in the dying seconds of stoppage time in the first half.

Liverpool were further reduced to nine men when Diogo Jota picked up two yellow cards in quick succession and was sent off after 69 minutes.

The disallowed goal was hotly debated by the football pundits on television until a statement was finally released by the Premier League on behalf of the referee’s organisation, PGMOL.

It read: ‘PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool. The goal by Luiz 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’, it concluded.

Jurgen Klopp voiced his opinion on the PGMOL statement

Klopp was quite calm during his post-match interview with Sky Sports, but once he learned about the PGMOL statement, in his press conference, the German voiced his opinion.

‘Who does that help now? We had that situation in the Wolves-Man United game. Did Wolves get the points? No! We will not get points for it so it doesn’t help. Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions on the field but we all thought when VAR came in that it might make things easier’, he suggested.

‘I don’t know why the people…are they that much under pressure? Today the decision was made really quick I would say for that goal. It changed the momentum of the game, so that’s how it is’, Klopp added.