Sky Sports reporter David Jones shared some revealing insight that the broadcaster had obtained regarding Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday.
The Colombian thought he’d opened the scoring for the Reds in the first half, only to be wrongly flagged offside, and a subsequent VAR review failed to overturn the clear error.
The incident has dominated the post-match discussion for nearly three days now, and it was inevitably a talking point on Monday Night Football.
Sharing what he knows from Sky sources, Jones outlined that it’s believed officials from Liverpool informed the on-field referees of the glaring oversight during the interval, with Simon Hooper and his assistants oblivious to the controversy until that point.
The presenter said: “It’s our understanding that the on-field officials were not made aware of the decision until half-time, so they didn’t know there was anything wrong with what had happened until we got to the interval, and I think it might have been Liverpool officials who made them aware of it to start with.”
Even if the on-field referees didn’t have the benefit of VAR replays, the decision looked straightforward enough that you’d still expect the assistant on the touchline to have made the correct call in real time.
Nonetheless, Hooper and his team were badly let down by their colleagues in Stockley Park, and that it took LFC officials to made them aware of the error (rather than acting upon it themselves at the time) is a damning indictment of the refereeing performances both on the pitch and in VAR on Saturday.
You can view Jones’ comments below (from 1:05), via @SkySportsPL on Twitter/X:
"I do feel like this is a crisis point for VAR" @Carra23 gives his honest opinion on the controversial decision to disallow Luis Díaz's goal against Tottenham 👇 pic.twitter.com/TZoXdsS34z
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 2, 2023