Before choosing what to do next, Liverpool is still gathering evidence on the investigation into the offside incident at Tottenham on Saturday.
Due to a misunderstanding between on-field referee Simon Hooper and VAR Darren England, the club had a Luis Diaz goal disallowed in north London. The Reds lost the Premier League match, which was scoreless at the time of the event, 2-1.
In a statement they released late Sunday night, Liverpool stated that they would “explore the range of options available given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”
Since then, much attention has been paid to the specifics of how the club wants the situation to develop and be handled, but PA understands that for now, Liverpool views “explore” as the statement’s crucial word.
They want more information on the specifics of the incident review that the referees’ organization Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has pledged to conduct.
The Reds are aware that, unlike in the case of contesting a red card, there is no established protocol or playbook for handling this particular combination of circumstances.
In a statement released on Saturday night, PGMOL admitted that a “significant error” had taken place. The PA news agency says that although England followed the necessary procedure in drawing lines, he lost focus and believed the initial onfield ruling had been onside. Hooper and his assistants had given offside against Diaz on the field.
As a result, he gave Hooper a “check complete” notice rather than notifying him of an intervention and awarding the goal.
Play had already restarted when the officials realized an error had been made, and according to VAR protocols, once that has happened, there is no turning back to review a judgment.
While Dan Cook, England’s assistant VAR at Tottenham, has been replaced for Monday night’s encounter between Fulham and Chelsea, England served as the fourth official for the Sunday contest between Nottingham Forest and Brentford.
Tuesday morning at 10am, the referee and VAR assignments for the upcoming weekend’s games are scheduled to be revealed.
There have been calls for the communication between England and Hooper to be made public due to the controversy surrounding the Diaz goal.
The audio could possibly be included in the upcoming “Match Officials Mic’d Up” program, which is scheduled to run on Monday, according to PGMOL.
England and Cook returned to the UK on Friday morning after spending Thursday night as part of a delegation of officials overseeing a match between Sharjah and Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.
The Football Association (FA) and PGMOL jointly give authorization for officials to travel when requests are made for English officials to oversee domestic matches abroad.
The duties of officials are calibrated to take into account any outside engagements during the week, just as players who participate in Europa League games on a Thursday do not return to local competition until Sunday.
For instance, Michael Oliver, who officiated the game in the United Arab Emirates the previous week, officiated on Saturday as a fourth official but officiated again on Sunday at Forest.
The travel to the UAE was also not exceptional. It was the seventh occasion in the past ten months that officials have presided over domestic games abroad, with teams being led by Tom Bramall and Andy Madley in January and the early summer, respectively, Oliver refereeing a Saudi match in April, and Craig Pawson traveling to Greece in May.
On top of that, English referees are regularly needed for international club and national team competitions.
However, Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag stated on Monday that he still had complete “trust” in referees in contrast to Liverpool’s assessment that the error that occurred had compromised sporting integrity.
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