VAR

Alan Shearer, speaking on Match of the Day, described the refereeing decisions and VAR review that led to Luis Diaz's goal being ruled out for offside and the Curtis Jones sending off as "incomprehensible".
He added: "A horrendous day for the officials and VAR. We have seen some howlers but that is the biggest. Trust is going to be a big thing going forward."

VAR failed to intervene after clear and obvious factual error - PGMOL
The PGMOL issued a statement on Saturday in response to the VAR controversy at Spurs.
"The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene."

PGMOL apology 'doesn't help' - Klopp
Jurgen Klopp said after the match that any PGMOL statement or apology "doesn't help" and referenced the apology Wolves received for the decision not to award a penalty at Manchester United earlier in the season.
While Reds skipper Virgil van Dijk admitted he was losing faith in VAR after Saturday's costly officiating blunder.
And goalkeeper Alisson Becker was this morning reported in the Mirror as saying Liverpool had every right to be "outraged" and players were treated like "prisoners", unable to have their say on bad decisions through fear of facing extra punishment.

'VAR blunder refs dropped by top flight'
On Sunday morning, the PGMOL said Darren England had been replaced as the fourth official for Sunday's Premier League game between Nottingham Forest and Brentford, while Dan Cook has been replaced as assistant referee for tonight's game between Fulham and Chelsea.

Darren England might have been replaced as the fourth official at the City Ground on Sunday, but the VAR controversy continued as 10-man Nottingham Forest fought back to claim a 1-1 draw at home to Brentford.
Forest manager Steve Cooper and Brentford boss Thomas Frank were left frustrated with refereeing decisions on another controversial day of Premier League football.
Cooper was unhappy with Moussa Niakhate's red card, while Frank felt Brentford should have had a penalty.
"We all want referees to be in a good place," said Cooper after the game. "But they have just raised more questions than answers."

It transpired on Sunday that Darren England, Dan Cook and Michael Oliver, who was the fourth official at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, were also part of a match officiating team that took charge of a league game in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
The Football Association had approved the trip and the trio arrived in London on Friday to prepare for Saturday's game.
It is understood that Liverpool also want this looked at as part of PGMOL's review.

GET INVOLVED - FANS VIEWS
Anon: Football was fun in the 90/00s because it was about the football. Refs just turned up and did a job. Now it’s overly-complicated rules and all about the refs. Whether VAR works or not isn’t the issue. Make it about the football again. We don’t remember great moments because of technology, we remember the human element. Long live football..

Nicky Holender: It was a mistake by VAR official that he thought a goal had been given, nothing more nothing less. Everyone makes mistakes. It didn’t alter the outcome of the game, Spurs completely dominated Liverpool’s 10 men and probably would have won anyway I suspect. Nobody talks about the true mistake that cost Liverpool the game was Matip putting the ball in his own net. Should he be sat down for a couple of games? No of course not it was just a mistake he made.

Matt, Paignton: All the controversy around VAR and offsides again...let's just get rid of the offside rule! More goals and more entertainment but much less controversy.

Dave: VAR has to go, it has added nothing but misery to the game. It is supposed to add clarity to decisions and it does not do that, never has, never will. Do the right thing and bin it and spend the money on something more meaningful.

Max Davison, Malvern: It's time to remove the human factor from offside. A.I. is perfectly capable of doing the job in milliseconds.

Adam: So an official made a mistake in a football match and disallowed a goal. That's been happening for years - it's football. You win some you lose some, move on and get over it!

Either, Mason will make a lucrative living in the Middle East (remember a handball is punishable by immediate hand amputation), where football is being slowly hijacked (sportswashing).

Or, the EFL will be persuaded to foist Mason on our beleaguered divisions.

#UpTheROVERS

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher, speaking on Five Live Breakfast, on the decision to rule out Luis Diaz's strike for Liverpool at Tottenham: “It’s one of the biggest errors we can remember. But you have to drill down into it. How did it happen? What is the learning process?

"You can’t fudge it away. It was a really big error. But you can’t dwell on it. You have to find out what happened and more importantly make sure it never ever happens again.”

ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/624/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2023/10/3/63b31ec0-df40-4d1f-b8c5-0a9f7f95d6c5.jpg

“It was about the process. There’s nothing wrong with what happened apart from small details and sometimes small details are very important.

“The process needs steps - one, two, three and four. And the first thing was ‘what was the on-field decision?’. If that been asked the VAR could have checked for offside. Unfortunately he presumed the goal had been given. That’s where it fell down.

“He then looked, saw it was onside and used those words ‘check complete’. The referee Simon Hooper has to go on that as he can’t see the images. As soon as the free kick is taken the game goes on. The laws say it can’t go back.

“The fundamental flaw was not asking that first question.”

On whether fatigue was an issue on Saturday after the VAR officials took charge of a game in the UAE: “It is no different to when they go to the Champions League. When I refereed they didn’t have the support systems they have now.

"I went to Vladivostok once and had to leave on the Sunday, didn’t get back until the Thursday and refereed on the Saturday. It is part and parcel of the job. You are resting while travelling and don’t have the demands of a 9-5 job.

“I can only talk about my own experience. I want to referee games. I would rather take charge of a midweek game than just going Saturday to Saturday.”

A final word from Dermot Gallagher on what VAR improvements could be made: “Howard Webb wants things to get better. We have seen more transparency but at the moment (Football's law makers) Ifab do not allow the VAR conversations to be heard in the stadiums. Whether that will change in the future I don’t know, but there’s a big push to get that."

ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/624/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2023/10/3/48fd01cf-e6c7-4f13-841d-706ae72f24bc.jpg
Howard Webb

The New York Times' Rory Smith explained on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club what he felt was the main issue raised by the VAR controversy in Saturday's match between Tottenham and Liverpool.

He said: "What I find astonishing is that as soon as Spurs took the free-kick [after Luis Diaz's goal had been wrongly disallowed] no-one said 'hang on, that shouldn't be happening'.

"The rules say that once the whistle goes you can't bring it back. That is a stupid rule, if something is obviously wrong you should be able to bring it back.

"Are you telling me that if VAR said to [on-field referee] Simon Hooper straight away 'Simon there has been a breakdown in communication, blow the whistle again, we need to sort this out' that anyone in the stadium would have objected? Not a chance.

"The referees now seem to function under the assumption that maintaining refereeing protocol is more important than sporting integrity. That is the real problem."

Alan Shearer - Former England striker on BBC Breakfast..

i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article29922457.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_Screenshot-2888.jpg

Use whatever word you want - chaotic, shambolic. A mess would be the appropriate one.

I listened to that last night [VAR audio] like everyone else. It is chaotic - you have got so many voices going on.

Can you imagine being the referee? It's hard enough in that pressurised situation anyway, when you have got to make a crucial decision, but if you have got four or five voices in your ear pinging away to you...

You have got two professional people in the VAR room - the VAR and the VAR's assistant. How on earth can the both of them get such a decision like that wrong?

There has to be more communication [in the stadium]. It happens in rugby, where there is one voice in the stadium talking to the VAR official.

There is no game without the fans. Fans mean everything, fans make football. They need to hear, in the stadium, what is going on. That is one thing that has to improve.

I think more football people should be in that room, helping them make decisions, who have played the game of football. Not necessarily at the highest level, but certainly the game of football. That would help as well.

There are so many things. We need better understanding. It [VAR] is not going away, it is here to stay. We have to get on with it and put up with it, but it has to improve going forward.

The big thing they are going to have now is the trust issue.

There were people anyway who weren't believing in it. You can imagine what it is going to be like now, going forward.

I know what [referees' chief] Howard [Webb] is trying to do. Communication has definitely improved under Howard.

I know Howard, I know how hard he is working to try and make everything work, but this is certainly three or four steps backwards and, as I said, trust going forward is going to be a big issue and they are going to have to work hard at that.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: "The audio didn't change it at all because I was not really interested in why things happened because I knew - I saw the outcome, I saw the goal and we scored.
It didn't count so I was not waiting for the audio and a statement and hoping to find out how it could happen.
He added: "I think the only outcome should be a replay. That's how it is, [although that] probably will not happen."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on why a replay is the right thing to do: "The argument against that probably will be that if you open that gate then everybody will ask for it. I think the situation is that unprecedented that it didn't happen before. Something like that, as far as I can remember, never happened that's why I think a replay would be the right thing.
"If it would happen again then I think the replay would be the right thing to do, or the ref has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say 'sorry we made a mistake but we can sort it, let Liverpool score a goal and we start from there'."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said on the match officials: "I am not angry with anybody at all. They [the match officials] made a mistake and they felt horrible that night, I am 100% sure. That's enough, for me. Nobody needs further punishment."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on what needs to happen to improve VAR: "In the end, they are going to put it right. Believe it or not, but I believe in that.
"Mistakes happened, they shouldn't, but that is how it is - it is fine.
"[The key thing is to] learn from it, find a solution how to deal with it.
"The solution for me is not only improving the process. Things need as much time as they need. The problems are obvious. We should try to create a situation where these people can make the best decisions."

Jurgen Klopp returned to his initial call for a replay while saying he believes there should be a change in the rules in the future to allow officials to call back play if they realise a mistake has been made.
He said: "In a situation like this - a real, massive mistake with a lot of people involved - correct it in that moment.
"But obviously the people thought that's not what they can do. Fine, then let's do a replay and if it happens next time then give them the chance to do it like this [calling back play] then we don't have that problem [the need for a reply] at least any more."

i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article31103641.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_GettyImages-1680921575.jpg

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/976/cpsprodpb/B0BC/production/_131344254_star.jpg

England manager Gareth Southgate has criticised the video assistant referee system for the negative impact it has on match-going fans.

The VAR officials failed to change the decision when Liverpool's Luis Diaz had a goal wrongly flagged for offside in a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham last Saturday.

Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has since called for the game to be replayed.

"I was always brought up as a kid that the referee's decision was final," said Southgate.

"You might agree or disagree but we have to get on with it."

Southgate explained why he feels a lack of enthusiasm for VAR on the day he announced his England squad for games against Australia and Italy.

He nevertheless accepts football is "unlikely to go back to a world where we don't have technology as part of that decision-making process".

Elaborating on his feelings towards VAR, Southgate added: "All I would say is everybody used to go to the pub and moan about the ref and they still go to the pub and moan about the ref.

"So I'm not sure what we've resolved, really.

"When I am at games I am always conscious that the only people who don't know what is going on are the people who have paid to go. I find that really difficult.

"I am sitting in the stadium next to people and I am lucky as I normally get a free ticket and other people pay a lot of money and haven't got a clue or are on the phone to someone at home asking what's going on.

"The frustration, you can feel it in the stadium, you can feel the view.

"I know if we didn't have it people would go back to, 'well this could be resolved', but when I am in the stadiums my sense is they don't necessarily want 14 minutes of added time or a decision by something that they are not totally across the process of."

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/976/cpsprodpb/6EB8/production/_131344382_express.jpg

Get Involved - How would you fix VAR ?

Anon: England last night and now Wales, is some of the worst officiating I have seen - I thought things were supposed to be getting better!

Tom: VAR should only be used for offsides, and if the ball went out of play. They keep getting subjective decisions wrong anyway, so why are they being used for opinion-based decisions in matches? They've proven their input is often flawed, and takes way too long to get to that point. Stick with the ref for subjective decisions, but use VAR for things technology can clear up. Simple.

Martin: VAR - Goalkeepers should wear body cams to remove the subjectivity around whether something is within their view and whether that view is being blocked.

Richard, Aberdeen: Allow teams only one challenge per game. Otherwise referee's decision stands.