Liverpool say VAR error ‘undermined sporting integrity’

Liverpool have said the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) error that resulted in a goal by Luis Diaz being incorrectly disallowed in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham “undermined sporting integrity.”

Nine-man Liverpool lost after Joel Matip scored an own goal in stoppage time but they should have taken the lead in the first half through Diaz whose goal was ruled out for offside.

VAR failed to overturn the incorrect decision to disallow the goal leading the English referees’ body PGMOL to issue a statement blaming “significant human error” in the Premier League game.

“It is clear that the rules of the game were not applied correctly, which undermined sporting integrity,” Liverpool said in a statement on Sunday.

“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not given to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.”

The PGMOL said disallowing the Diaz goal was a “clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention.”

PGMOL added that it will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error.