Liverpool Football Club have released an official statement following yesterday’s defeat to Spurs in London.
The Reds had a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside in the first half after Luis Diaz fired the Reds ahead with a sublime finish.
VAR Darren England and AVAR Dan Cook failed to intervene and allow the goal, however, and shortly after the full-time whistle yesterday the PGMOL released a statement acknowledging that an error had been made.
It was too late at that point, though, as Jurgen Klopp’s side had already succumbed to their first defeat of the season after Joel Matip fired into his own net deep into injury time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Son Heung-min put the hosts ahead before Cody Gakpo levelled before the break for 10-men Liverpool with a clever finish inside the area.
With Curtis Jones already seeing red in the first half, the visitors were then reduced to nine men after substitute Diogo Jota was shown two yellows in quick succession but despite a spirited performance Klopp’s side failed to hold out for a point.
Refereeing chief Howard Webb has already apologised to Liverpool for the shambolic performance of the officials and the Merseysiders have now released their own statement in response
The statement reads, via @LFC on X:
“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.
“We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.
“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.
“That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.
“This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.
“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”