VAR officials recalled after failure to award Luis Diaz's goal for Liverpool against Tottenham
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Two soccer officials involved in Luis Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal for Liverpool against Tottenham last month will return to Premier League duty this weekend.
Video Assistant Referee Darren England and his assistant, Dan Cook, have been recalled for the first time since their error in Tottenham's 2-1 victory.
England will be the fourth official for Brentford's game against Burnley on Saturday and Cook is an assistant for Sheffield United's match against Manchester United on the same day.
Their failure to award what would have been an opening goal for Diaz prompted Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to call on the Premier League to have the game replayed. It also led to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, which is the governing body of referees in England, to announce changes to video review protocols.
The body admitted the mistake after VAR failed to award Diaz’s goal, despite replays clearly showing the forward was onside when he scored. When audio of the decision-making process was released, it became evident the video review official mistakenly believed the goal had been awarded by the onfield officials and did not overrule that call. Diaz had, however, been whistled for offside.
Liverpool issued a statement saying it would “explore the range of options available given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”
Klopp went further when calling for a rematch.
"I’m used to wrong and difficult decisions, but something like this never happened and so that is why I think a replay is the right thing to do,” he said.
After that loss, Liverpool dropped further points in a draw with Brighton the following week. Tottenham, meanwhile, moved to the top of the standings after a 1-0 win over Luton.
Changes to protocol implemented by the PGMOL include improved communication between Video Assistant Referees. It also said it would reiterate that the speed of decision-making must not be at the expense of accuracy.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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