‘That organisation is now in crisis’ – Pundits and ex-pros react after Liverpool VAR audio released
The topic of conversation in football in recent days has been what happened in the VAR control room during Liverpool’s away Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
A valid goal by Luis Diaz was overturned, and the Reds issued a statement demanding that the PGMOL be transparent about the details of the incident.
The PGMOL made the incident’s audio available last night. They offered their opinions and confirmed certain urgent adjustments to the VAR procedure.
“As stated in a statement shortly after the full-time whistle on Saturday evening, we acknowledged that a significant human error had occurred during the aforementioned match, which we recognize should have resulted in a goal being awarded through VAR intervention,” the PGMOL statement continued.
Pundits and former professionals have been discussing the audio on social media and in other forums; many of them have said that refereeing standards and the use of VAR need to be significantly improved.
Tuesday night, Richard Keys declared during the Champions League telecast on BeIN SPORTS: “The biggest league in the world is being officiated by people that are not skilled enough. Currently, that organization is in trouble.
The video operator is attempting to save the scenario for the VAR & AVAR one second after Spurs take the free kick, according to Reds great Jamie Carragher’s tweet on Twitter/X.
“Like I said last night on #MNF, they utterly froze, panicked, and failed to make the appropriate decision to simply halt the game, whether it was permitted by the rulebook or not. The sole benefit, in my opinion, is that it will encourage everyone involved to release VAR audio more frequently and more quickly going forward.
Tim Howard, a former goalkeeper for Everton, said: “This can’t happen again, but ultimately what we do know about human mistake is that it will happen again while working for NBC covering Tuesday’s Champions League matches.
The system itself needs to be examined once more, and as for why it occurred, we are still unsure. We have listened to the audio, which is intriguing to hear, but we are unsure of the cause of the disconnect.
“I know we talk about human error, that should not happen, it should not happen, as simple as that,” former international Danny Higginbotham of Gibraltar remarked. There is no justification for what occurred at Tottenham over the weekend; that was likely the worst judgement I have ever witnessed since VAR was implemented.
Darren Bent and Andy Goldstein centered their discussion of the audio on the panic and apparent hurry that the umpires appeared to be in to begin the game. Goldstein said: “They said they can’t do anything…they can! Just quit playing; it’s your game.
Bent commented more on the audio, saying, “It seems like there is a lot of fear going on. Where is the dialogue happening? That was my only thinking. Simply tell the referee to “hold on a second.” Wait. Just allow us to check.
