“I trust in VAR. I trust in the car but not the driver.”
“It was a mistake. Accept it.”
“I’d be surprised if they have gone that way. It’s a significant error but it’s a human being that’s made that error.”
This week’s hot topic in the Premier League has, of course, been the VAR error from last Sunday, involving Liverpool’s Luis Diaz and a goal against Tottenham Hotspur that was incorrectly disallowed.
And following that, it has been reported that Darren England, the VAR during Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Liverpool, will not officiate the Merseyside club’s matches for the remainder of this season.
The discourse has been widespread and varied, from demands for VAR to be scrapped, to calls for greater introspection, and Jurgen Klopp’s suggestion that the match should be replayed.
The error was so severe it led to Professional Match Game Officials Limited (PGMOL), the organisation responsible for referees in England, standing down those responsible and taking the unprecedented step of releasing the VAR audio from around Diaz’s disallowed goal. You can read a full transcription of that here.
PGMOL, alongside the Premier League, has also committed to a regular release of in-game audio of on-field officials and VAR teams during the 2023-24 season.
Diaz’s disallowed goal has sparked debate (Photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
So, with everyone else giving their opinion on England, VAR and Diaz incident, The Athletic asked Premier League managers what they thought and whether it potentially sets a worrying precedent that a top-level official may be taken off matches for a certain team.
One manager, speaking on the condition of anonymity, feels that the decision to take Simon Hooper off the list for a week following his failure to award Wolves a penalty against Manchester United on August 14 instantly created a lot of uncertainty among the referee group, some of whom are quite inexperienced this season.
He wonders if the rest of the group suddenly felt pressure, in the knowledge that, if they made a mistake, that would be them dropped next time. In his view, from the early stage of the season, there was a lot of pressure piled on referees to get things right or face the consequences.
Here’s what managers had to say on the record….
‘People make mistakes in life’
Commenting on England possibly not refereeing another Liverpool game in 2023-24, Brentford’s Thomas Frank said: “I guess it’s only in this season, next season he is in. I don’t know.
“I don’t know exactly why they do it. Maybe take the pressure off so they are not in the spotlight seven days later and just get a little breather then you go again. People make mistakes in life and if you fall off the horse or the bike you need to get back on it and go again and learn from it. A breather then go again is fine.”
‘I trust in VAR. I trust in the car but not the driver’
Mauricio Pochettino spoke candidly about referees, VAR and restated his previous concerns over the use of technology in football officiating.
“It’s two diffierent things,” the Chelsea boss said. “I trust in VAR. I trust in the car but not the driver. That is the problem.
“I was very critical from the beginning many years ago. I think it’s a good decision to use the technology of whether it is across the line to keep, and if it is offside also, to take time is important. Then we can discuss and argue about whether the referee needs to be more involved, to have the last say.”
On Diaz’s disallowed goal and the VAR error, Pochettino added: “For sure it was a mistake no? We need to accept the mistake. I don’t know if it is the right decision (to take England off Liverpool games) or not. I cannot put myself in Liverpool’s position, or in the VAR or referees. For sure it was difficult. I listened to what happened, we all saw and listened in this country.
“To be a precedent, I don’t know. I don’t know if you are Liverpool if you can accept the apology. There are too many things when if you are not involved, you don’t know how you are going to react. Maybe if I was involved I would stop the game there, if I am Klopp, maybe eh?”
GO DEEPER
The Liverpool offside audio was dreadful. But maybe we are the bigger problem
‘We need to give support’
Asked whether a worrying precedent may be set, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “I don’t know. It’s something where we don’t have a say, we don’t manage it.
“I think they are trying to make the best decisions, they are trying to protect the game, they are trying to get as much support as possible and as well be ruthless when it’s needed. At some point as well we need to give support and we need to understand that mistakes happen. We make mistakes as well. If not I think the pressure will be so much that the pressure will be difficult to manage.”
‘I’d be surprised if they gave gone that way’
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou said he was only aware of the VAR controversy after the Liverpool game when journalists in the post-match press conference were talking about it.
“I don’t know and I don’t know if that’s been decided,” the Australian said when asked for his thoughts on if England was to not referee Liverpool this season. “I’d be surprised if they have gone that way. It’s a significant error but it’s a human being that’s made that error. I don’t think that there’s anything that needs to go too far-reaching.
“When listening to that you probably think there’s better ways of communicating a clear decision in such a big situation. I hope that’s what they’re addressing, not the individual that made the mistake. I think that’s a dereliction of the game. That’s like me hanging out a player to dry just because he made a mistake. My role is to go in and help that player to improve not say, ‘Now you’re never playing again’.”
‘We want consistency and VAR has a part to play in that’
Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom compared the Diaz disallowed goal to a goalline technology incident in their game against Villa in 2020.
“In this instance, and the Sheffield United one at Villa, those black-and-white moments are more of an operational thing,” Heckingbottom said. “I’ve heard the audio, I’m sure you guys have. Within a couple of seconds everyone knows there’s an error and when it’s black and white, and something’s broken; everyone could see it.
“From our point of view, we want consistency and VAR has a part to play in that. It’s how it’s implemented. The instance with Liverpool, it was a goal and the powers that be realised it was a goal after so long. Could something be implemented where there’s an intervention in there to put it right?”
Paul Heckingbottom compared the Diaz incident to Sheffield United’s goal that never was against Aston Villa in June 2020 (Photo: PAUL ELLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
‘I would hope that we’re in a place where everyone can officiate everyone’
Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil mostly kept his opinions to himself when asked about the incident but did say: “If there are only rumours then I’m probably best not to comment on them.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it as well, so I don’t know too much about it. I would hope that we’re in a place where everyone can officiate everyone.
“But there’ll be people working a lot longer than the 18 seconds that I’ve just been thinking about it when you asked me!So I’m sure they’ll come up with a better solution than me.”
‘It was a mistake. Accept it.’
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola urged people to move on and learn from the incident.
“I said before the game against Leipzig,” he said. “It was a mistake. Accept it. The humans make mistakes and VAR is there to reduce the mistakes humans do, we do. Hopefully, it finishes here and gets better. The Premier League and people from VAR will try to improve it, the reason VAR was implemented was to make our game more right and hopefully, it will be better in the future.”
‘Before we had VAR, we had more mistakes then than we have now’
Speaking about the use of VAR in football earlier this week, Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery stated his belief that football is better of with the use of technology to help officials.
“Before we had VAR, we had more mistakes then than we have now,” Emery said. “Now, I can accept small mistakes in VAR. And they are only small mistakes. Of course, for Liverpool it was a big mistake but before VAR, there were more and more.
“I listened to the conversation between the referees and they were concerned about their mistake but they couldn’t react because the game started playing again. It’s as again. I accept it. Of course for Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp. I accept it. But before VAR, there was more.
“No (I wouldn’t want the game replayed). I have to accept it like we did before VAR.”
GO DEEPER
Liverpool VAR error audio made public - full transcript
(Top photos: Visionhaus/Getty Images, Clive Rose/Getty Images, Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
