Referee Stuart Attwell addressed the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to explain the decision to disallow a Dominic Solanke goal in the Carabao Cup semi-finals against Liverpool, but Reds fans would later have a big issue with the official.
In a first for English football, referee Attwell announced the decision to chalk off Solanke's strike in the 76th minute as the forward was offside. The Spurs No.19 raced onto a Dejan Kulusevski pass and slotted home, but the flag didn't go up.
However, after the incident was checked over by VAR, it was deemed that Solanke was just ahead of Liverpool's deepest defender Trent Alexander-Arnold and so therefore offside.
The Carabao Cup semi-finals are being used to trial a new system which sees referees explain VAR overturns to the crowd in the stadium once the final decision is reached.
The system was in play for Arsenal's semi-final first leg against Newcastle on Tuesday night, but with no overturns needed in that clash, Attwell's intervention became a first in the English game.
After the decision was reached, Attwell said over the microphone: "After a review, Dominic Solanke was in an offside position in the build-up to the goal. The final decision is offside." The decision was met with boos from the home crowd, while online many people found the novelty of hearing Attwell's voice rather bizarre.
One fan said: "Haha it's proper weird hearing the referee!" Another added: "That VAR offside decision being announced on the pitch by the referee seemed really strange, especially as there was no flags on the play."
However, Attwell's later intervention got many more football supporters talking. The referee somehow decided not to issue a second yellow card to Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall when he brought down Liverpool full-back Kostas Tsimikas. Moments later, Bergvall scored the only goal of the first leg when Tsimikas was off the pitch to give Spurs the lead in the tie.
The focus on Attwell swiftly turned from his announcement of the offside goal to that decision, with one fan saying: "Stuart Attwell fancy explaining that one?"
Another added: "I look forward to the referee explaining why that wasn’t a second yellow card in his post match interview. Oh that’s right, those incompetent jokers don’t have to live by the same rules as the players and managers they screw over."