September 30, 2023. It’s approximately 6:04pm at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and Liverpool is about to suffer from the most infamous VAR mistake there has ever been.
Less than 10 minutes after going down to 10 men, Luis Diaz has the ball in the back of the net, but the offside flag is up. After a quick check, the game continues and remains goalless - no-one quite knew at that moment the drama that would unfold.
Liverpool returns to the scene of that VAR debacle for the first time later today, with Arne Slot now in charge and hoping to gain some revenge for the controversy that surrounded the Reds’ 2-1 defeat last season.
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More than a year has now passed since then, but Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal proved to be a huge moment for the Premier League and VAR.
What happened?
Liverpool was already down to 10 men after Curtis Jones was controversially sent off for a challenge on Yves Bissouma - Gary Neville was among those adamant the midfielder should have stayed on the pitch - by the time Mohamed Salah slid the ball through to Diaz, with the Colombian firing the ball beyond Guglielmo Vicario.
The Colombian’s celebrations were quickly cut short by the offside flag, with a quick VAR check confirming the onfield decision - or so it seemed.
TV viewers were only given a quick glimpse of the replay, which appeared to show Diaz in an onside position. Questions quickly began to circulate, but what fans didn’t know was that the officials in the VAR room in Stockley Park actually knew Diaz was indeed onside.
A colossal mistake had just been made. Believing that a goal had been given on the field, VAR official Darren England issued the message “check complete” to Simon Hooper, only for the replay operator to question the decision.
Once it dawned on England and his assistant Daniel Cook that the wrong decision had been relayed, panic ensued as fourth official Michael Oliver tried to delay the game. With play having resumed though, there was nothing the VAR officials could do but let out a few choice words, with the full story only emerging after the game.
How was the mistake made public?
Shortly after full-time, the PGMOL released a statement admitting to a “significant human error”.
"This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention,” the statement added. “However, the VAR failed to intervene. PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error."
The statement was read out live during Sky Sports’ coverage, with Neville heard exclaiming ‘oh no’ as host Kelly Cates relayed it.
What was the response?
Liverpool was, understandably, angered by the mistake. Then-manager Jurgen Klopp couldn’t hide his frustration straight after the confirmation from the PGMOL.
“Who does that help now? We won’t get points for it, it won’t help,” Klopp said. “Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions but we thought when VAR came in it might make things easier.”
Liverpool would go on to release a statement the following evening. “We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR,” the club said.
“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention. That such failings have already been categorised as ‘significant human error’ is also unacceptable.
“Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency. This is vital for the reliability of future decision making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.
“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”
It was uncertain what those options would entail, although Klopp would later suggest that the game should have been replayed. It’s a view that has been ridiculed by plenty of rivals fans, although there was no doubt that the PGMOL was in uncharted territory.
England and Cook were stood down for their following games, while the decision was made that England would not officiate another Liverpool fixture during the remainder of the season. He would have to wait for three weeks before returning as a fourth official in the Premier League, while he was appointed to a Liverpool game for the first time since the controversy just a few months ago for the Reds’ trip to Wolves.
What has changed since then?
The PGMOL introduced a new ‘VAR communication protocol’ the following week, requiring VAR officials to confirm the outcome of any check process with the assistant VAR before notifying the on-field officials of the final decision.
Rather than simply saying ‘check complete’, officials now also have to relay what decision has been reached in order to make sure both the VAR and on-field referee are on the same page.
The biggest change though has still not been implemented. The debacle raised the question of why semi-automated offside technology - already a feature in the Champions League at that point - was not used in the Premier League.
Clubs had opted against the system ahead of the 2023/24 season, but that viewpoint soon changed, and it was subsequently scheduled to be introduced during the current campaign.
That change though has still not arrived. It was due to be introduced after one of the autumn international breaks, but has now been delayed until 2025, with no date for its introduction having yet been given.
Of course, the biggest question that Liverpool was left with was what would have happened had the mistake not happened? It arrived just moments before Son Heung-min opened the scoring for Spurs, and although Cody Gakpo leveled things before the break, Diogo Jota’s second-half sending-off left them playing on with just nine men, with Joel Matip’s late, late own goal eventually securing Tottenham’s victory.
Diaz’s goal may well have changed the course of that game, and quite what bearing that would have had on the title race will never be known.
