Refereeing

FOOTBALL fans have been left dumbfounded after realising the person that spotted the astonishing VAR blunder during Tottenham’s win over Liverpool was NOT a qualified referee.VAR failed to overturn the on-field decision to disallow Luis Diaz’s goal for offside on Sunday despite drawing the lines to show he was onside.
Luis Diaz was clearly onside but VAR failed to overturn the on-field decisionCredit: Sky Sports
It was the replay operator that spotted the goal had not been awarded rather than the VAR or AVAR
VAR officials Darren England and assistant VAR Dan Cook then restarted the game, confirming the check was complete.
What they somehow failed to realise was that the original decision was offside.
And neither VAR England or AVAR Cook spotted their huge mistake when the game resumed – as has now been revealed following the release of the audio.
Incredibly, it took the replay operator to point out that the goal had been awarded.
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He can be heard saying: “Wait, wait, wait, wait. The on-field decision was offside. Are you happy with this?”
AVAR Cook then responds: “Yeah.”
The replay operator then asks again: “Are you happy with this?”
Cook again bizarrely replies: “Offside, goal, yeah.”
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Then realising his error, he tells England: “That’s wrong that, Daz.”
Confused, VAR England says: “What?”
Once again, the replay operator remains the clearest communicator, adding: “On-field decision was offside. Are you happy with this image? It’s onside. The image that we gave them is onside.”
Only then does England realise the grave error as he can be heard swearing.
The officials go on to insist they cannot stop the game and rectify the mistake as Diaz’s goal remained wrongfully disallowed.
And fans on social media were left flabbergasted that the only unqualified official involved in the process was the one to spot the error.
One supporter said: “Remarkable that it’s the replay operator who’s first to spot this catastrophic error rather than the collection of qualified referees present.”
Another added: “Oh, except for the replay operator, who I think is not a referee, and immediately spots that something major has gone wrong.
“He is then shouted down by the VAR, who just repeats ‘nothing we can do’ in a manner that is…not especially becoming.”
A third replied: “The replay operator realising the massive mistake before any of the qualified PGMOL referees is hardly a positive either, is it?”
While a fourth responded: “The replay operator noticed the error quicker than the team of paid ‘experts’ 😭😭😭.”
And a fifth said: “Congrats to Replay Operator for becoming the the breakout hero of 2023.”
Prior to asking for the audio to be released Liverpool published a strong statement about the incident.
They said: ” 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.
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“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”
The PGMOL took action on Sunday by removing VAR England from Nottingham Forest’s draw with Brentford. More

VAR villain Darren England and assistant Dan Cook have been axed from the weekend fixtures.The pair were responsible for the VAR fiasco during Tottenham’s win over Liverpool after failing to tell referee Simon Hooper to overturn the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside.
Simon Hooper will be the VAR for Everton vs BournemouthCredit: Reuters
Spurs quickly restarted the match, with VAR protocols preventing the error from being corrected.
The PGMOL admitted the blunder and issued a statement claiming a “significant human error” had resulted in the blunder.

They also took swift action by removing England from VAR duty for Nottingham Forest’s 1-1 draw with Brentford.
The referee, who officiated a match in U.A.E last Thursday, will now sit out of the weekend’s fixtures along with Cook, who was his VAR during the Spurs vs Liverpool disaster.
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England was supposed to referee a Championship clash between Leicester and Preston.
While Simon Hooper, who was the fourth official for Fulham’s defeat to Chelsea on Monday, has avoided punishment and will be VAR for Everton vs Bournemouth on Saturday.
However Hooper did not escape criticism at the weekend after sending off Liverpool duo Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota.
Jurgen Klopp claimed neither player deserved to be sent off and the Reds have appealed Jones’ straight red card – with Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp describing his dismissal as “harsh”.
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Klopp also described match as one of the most “unfair” he has ever been a part of, with fans calling for the clash to be replayed.
The PGMOL also intend to release the VAR audio of the failure to award Diaz’s goal once a review into the incident is complete.
The decision comes after Liverpool formally requested to be given the audio from the VAR room at Stockley Park. More

LIVERPOOL have demanded the audio of the conversations between ref Simon Hooper and VAR Darren England after their wrongly-disallowed goal at Spurs.In the latest ratcheting up of their campaign against PGMOL chiefs, the Anfield club made the “formal request” for the full audio recording of the discussions between the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Stockley Park in the aftermath of the incident.
Liverpool have demanded the audio from the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goalCredit: Premier League
It comes after Liverpool said there was a “clear need for escalation and resolution” over the catalogue of mistakes that led to Luis Diaz’ strike being ruled out.
But Liverpool’s antagonistic approach has raised the hackles of Prem rivals who are privately accusing the Merseysiders of attempting to  corral officials to give them the benefit of the doubt in future matches.
Club chiefs know that neither PGMOL nor Prem chiefs can respond to Liverpool’s attack on the refs’ body without pouring oil on the flames, giving the Anfield outfit a “free hit”.
There is, though, growing disquiet at the feeling that Liverpool are putting pressure on future referees rather than accepting they were on the wrong end of a dreadful decision.
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It is understood that refs’ boss Howard Webb – who apologised to Liverpool for the error on Saturday evening – is keen to demonstrate that this was a significant cock-up rather than a conspiracy.
League chiefs, though, feel that the full review process – including potential changes in the communications between VARs and referees that might prevent a recurrence – needs to be completed before the audio recording is made available.
Former Prem ref Dermot Gallagher, the unofficial voice of PGMOL, told Sky Sports News that the decision was “the wrong call, 100 per cent” but was simply “a mistake, a very bad mistake, but that was it”.
He added: “The only thing I can say is that we have to learn from it.
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“There’s no way this can ever happen again.”
It was believed that England had informed Hooper of his error when the ball next went out of play, meaning that there was nothing the referee could do to make amends.
Gallagher, though, insisted: “I’ve been assured that at no point did he tell the referee he had made a mistake. 
“The referee did not know from minute 34 to half-time that he had made a mistake.” More

HOWARD WEBB, the PGMOL chief, has a mammoth job to regain the trust of players, managers and fans after the biggest VAR blunder we’ve ever seen.We have had inconsistent calls on handballs, challenges and penalty incidents since the technology was introduced.
VAR was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons during Tottenham’s win over LiverpoolCredit: Alamy
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey believes five areas of improvement are needed to fix VARCredit: Rex
But there’s a major problem when we start getting factual decisions wrong, such as the goal by Liverpool’s Luis Diaz being unfairly ruled out for offside against Spurs.
VAR isn’t the problem — it’s the personnel using the technology and it’s no wonder people are losing trust and faith in the system.
No one wants PGMOL ­statements, apologises or explanations on TV shows — refs’ boss Webb must forget all that.
He just needs to sort out VAR — and the standard of officiating — fast because the technology is a good tool IF used correctly.
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The Premier League has the best players and managers and the supporters pay a lot of money.
But the officials, with VAR bunglers Darren England and AVAR Dan Cook the latest culprits, nowhere near the level required.
Everyone makes mistakes but they are now happening every weekend.
Here’s a five-point plan to avoid further horror shows:
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IMPROVE COMMUNICATION
Only the on-field referee and VAR should speak — nobody else.
During the review process, from the cases we have heard, the system is too chaotic with far too much chit-chat going on. Just cut out the “mate this” and “pal that”.
Conversations must be more precise, to the point and clinical. We can learn from cricket and both rugby codes where reviews are slick.
At the moment, there’s too much going on over the mic which leads to confusion.
MAKE THE AUDIO PUBLIC
Fans must be allowed to hear the conversation between ref and VAR. We’re in 2023, not 1973. I know IFAB currently prevents this and Webb wants this to come in.
But we need to push to make this happen because Webb and Co must regain the trust and faith of everyone in the game.
Suspicions have been raised over some VAR offside decisions in recent weeks — but the only way to be transparent is for fans to hear the audio.
It would remove that layer of doubts that is now creeping in.
Luis Diaz was wrongly deemed offside before scoring at Tottenham and VAR didn’t intervene
MORE TRAINING AND EDUCATION
VAR officials had four days of extra training before the start of the season — but was that really enough?
Referees have not trained for all those years to sit in front of a TV screen. It’s a different job and do they really know what they are looking for?
Pundits have sat there for years, have the experience of watching matches for hours on end to make the correct judgements.
Prem clubs haven’t helped themselves by voting against the semi-automatic offside system and it needs to be revisited and introduced straight away.
SET UP A SPECIALIST PANEL OF VAR OPERATORS
We need a dedicated team that just focuses on VAR because the personnel at present is a huge issue.
They must be non-active officials, ex-refs or former players who know the laws of the game.
Ex-players know what a poor challenge is and also the natural and unnatural positions of the arm/hand when judging deliberate and accidental handball.
Mike Dean was an excellent ref but not suited to using VAR and was quickly moved on.
Curtis Jones was sent off after VAR showed referee Simon Hooper a still imageCredit: Premier League
STOP USING STILL PICTURES
When ref Simon Hooper went to the monitor at Spurs on Saturday, VAR England had lined up a still picture of Curtis Jones’ tackle on Yves Bissouma.
That immediately plants a seed in the ref’s mind over what the outcome will be.
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Stills and slow motion make every challenge much worse than what it is.
Reviews must be in real time initially. More