Klopp Insists on Spurs’ Replay after VAR Error

Jurgen Klopp, wants the Liverpool vs Tottenham match to be replayed following VAR error which caused Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham last weekend. The VAR failure in Saturday’s match at Hart Lane stadium, in which officials wrongly disallowed Luis Diaz’s goal as a result of a misunderstanding over the on-field decision-making, saw Spurs victorious over Liverpool in 2-1.

According to the ESP reports: VAR ref, Darren England, incorrectly thought the on-field decision was “goal.” While he quickly identified that Díaz was onside, he told the referee “check complete” — which mistakenly told the on-field team the offside flag was correct. Liverpool officially requested for an audio conversation between the match officials from the referee body Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL). ESP reports that “the audio was released on the Premier League website, along with a full account of what went wrong and a lengthy statement from the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) after a thorough review was completed. PGMOL admitted a “significant human error” caused the wrong decision being taken. READ MORE: Arsenal Fans’ Hatred Caused Hartz’ Struggles

Klopp had a different opinion on the audio, he told a press conference on Wednesday that: “The audio didn’t change it at all, because I was not interested in why things happened. I saw the outcome, I saw a goal. We scored and it didn’t count. So I was not waiting for the audio and sitting there and hoping I find out how it could happen. It’s really important that, as big as football is, we really deal with it in a proper way. That all of the people involved — [the] on-field ref, linesman, fourth official and, especially now in this case, VAR — they didn’t do that on purpose. We should not forget that. It was an obvious mistake. Not as a manager of Liverpool so much, more as a football person, I think the only outcome should be a replay. Probably will not happen. The argument against that will probably be that if we open that gate then everyone will ask for it. “I think the situation is that unprecedented that… something like that, as far as I can remember, never happened. That’s why a replay would be the right thing.” When asked whether the club had formally or would formally ask the Premier League body for a match replay, Klopp replied: “At this stage we are still going through the information we have.”