In Saturday’s heavyweight clash, Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season to Tottenham Hotspur. Son Heung-min continued his recent goalscoring run to open the scoring for the visitors before Cody Gakpo equalized at the death of the first half. Sadly, despite the entertaining nature of the match, bad refereeing decisions clouded the outcome.
Liverpool had a goal chalked off in the first half before red cards to Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota made a defeat almost inevitable for the Reds. A late Joel Matip’s own goal may have gotten the job done for Tottenham, but Liverpool have now issued a statement acknowledging the PGMOL’s admission of a mistake in the match.
Liverpool issue statement over PGMOL’s apology
Bad refereeing judgements have clouded the new Premier League season, and Liverpool had their fair share of those on Saturday as they suffered their first league defeat of the season. Jurgen Klopp thought his men had gone ahead in the first half when Luiz Diaz scored after receiving a pass from Mohamed Salah, only for the goal to be ruled out by the VAR as offside, a decision that changed the course of the match.
The PGMOL quickly came out to address the controversial incident, admitting there was a “human error” on their part and that the goal should have stood. “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred. PGMOL will conduct a full review”, the body said in a statement.
“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”, the statement continued.
Liverpool were quick to address PGMOL’s statement, saying, “Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined.”
“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution”, the club added.
Despite the loss, Jurgen Klopp’s men lay fourth on the Premier League table, two points behind league leaders City, who also suffered their first defeat of the season to Wolves.
Gary Neville brands Liverpool statement ‘mistake’
Gary Neville has called Liverpool’s statement on the controversial VAR incident in their 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur a ‘mistake.’
“Jurgen Klopp handled the situation well last night after the game. Most football fans will have had empathy with what happened and recognized it was wrong”, the former Manchester United captain said on Twitter.
“However, Liverpool’s statement tonight is a mistake. Talk of exploring all options (what does that mean?) and sporting integrity are dangerous phrases, along with being vague and aggressive. This is a snap reaction that can always be wrong, but I feel strongly about it”, he concluded.
A similar incident happened earlier this season when Wolves should have had a penalty against Manchester United, but a VAR intervention judged the incident not worthy of a spot-kick. PGMOL apologized to Wolves, and the referees involved in the match were temporarily suspended for the next few games.
Will a strong rule be introduced to contain bad refereeing decisions in the Premier League going forward?
