The two assistant referees at the heart of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) controversy between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have been stood down from duty.
Darren England, VAR for Saturday evening’s Premier League fixture, and Dan Cook, the assistant VAR on the same game, will not officiate for Nottingham Forest vs Brentford on Sunday and the Fulham vs Chelsea match on Monday night respectively.
PGMOL confirmed that Craig Pawson will now assume England’s duties as fourth official at the City Ground while Eddie Smart will take over from Cook as assistant referee at Craven Cottage.
The referees’ body admitted after the game that Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal should have stood at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium following a “significant human error”.
Diaz thought he had given his side the lead on 34 minutes when he slotted home after being played in by Mohamed Salah, but he was denied by the offside flag. Replays appeared to show Diaz was in line with the trailing leg of Cristian Romero.
VAR lines were not provided with the replays. PGMOL stated that VAR had failed to intervene with the decision and promised a full review into the incident.
Diaz’s goal was wrongly disallowed for offside (Photo: Sky Sports)
A PGMOL statement 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.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said the retrospective PGMOL statement “won’t help” anyone.
“Who does that help now? We won’t get points for it, it won’t help,” he said. “Nobody expects 100% right decisions but we thought when VAR came in it might make things easier. The decision was made really quick and it changed the momentum of the game.”
Nine-man Liverpool were beaten 2-1 by Spurs following Joel Matip’s stoppage time own goal.
Liverpool were reduced to 10 players after 26 minutes when Curtis Jones was shown a straight red card for his challenge on Yves Bissouma. The Liverpool midfielder had initially been yellow-carded by referee Simon Hooper before a VAR intervention.
Diogo Jota received two yellow cards in the space of two second-half minutes as Liverpool played the final 21 minutes with nine men.
Cody Gakpo cancelled out Son Heung-min’s opener in first-half stoppage time and Klopp’s side appeared to have held on for a point, before Matip turned Pedro Porro’s cross into his own net in the 96th minute.
Liverpool return to Premier League action next weekend away against Brighton & Hove Albion while Tottenham travel to Luton Town.
GO DEEPER
Explained: The Luis Diaz VAR error in Tottenham vs Liverpool
(Photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
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