Luis Diaz Goal Controversy Leads to VAR Official Changes

The PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) has stated that the two VAR (Video Assistant Referee) officials involved in the disputed incident during the Tottenham vs. Liverpool match will not be officiating in upcoming games.

During Saturday’s match, Luis Diaz appeared to score a goal for Liverpool in the first half, seemingly giving his team the lead over Spurs. However, the goal was disallowed after a VAR review due to an offside call, causing controversy.

This decision, which sparked debate, was later attributed to a miscommunication between the on-field referees and the VAR officials. Darren England was in charge of VAR duties during the match, with Dan Cook assisting in the VAR role.

In a statement, PGMOL have now said: ‘Darren England and Dan Cook have been replaced for the Nottingham Forest v Brentford and Fulham v Chelsea matches.

‘Craig Pawson will now assume England’s duties as 4th official at City Ground while Eddie Smart will take over from Cook as assistant ref at Craven Cottage.’

Almost immediately after the match, PGMOL admitted that Diaz’s strike was incorrectly ruled out for offside and issued an apology to Liverpool.

‘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.’

The incident drew criticisms from fans, analysts and even managers – as Jurgen Klopp lashed out at the error during a post-match interview.

After hearing the statement, Klopp said: ‘Does that help? No. We had that situation at the Man United game (against Wolves last month) – did they get points for that? No. We will not get points for it today so it doesn’t help.

‘Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions on field. I think we all thought when VAR came in, it might make things easier. I don’t know why people are acting under that much pressure. Today the decision was made really quickly for the goal. It changed the momentum of the game.’