Those within the Premier League are pushing for the PGMOL’s review into the failings of VAR during Saturday’s fixture between Liverpool and Tottenham to examine the appointment process of the officials.
Three of the officials appointed for the game – Michael Oliver, Darren England and Dan Cook – were involved in matches in the United Arab Emirates 48 hours before kick-off and there are now questions being raised about whether fatigue influenced the poor officiating standards.
VAR officials England and Cook made a “significant human error” when they failed to overturn Luis Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal and have been relieved of their duties in Premier League games taking place on Sunday and Monday while the PGMOL look into their blunder.
The PGMOL have put the error down to a “momentary lapse of concentration”. This comes after England and Cook made a six-hour flight from the UAE the day before Tottenham vs Liverpool following their involvement in a UAE Pro League match between Al Ain and Sharjah on Thursday night.
They only had one day to recover and there are concerns this wasn’t long enough. Liverpool have since released a statement vowing to ‘explore the range of options avaliable’ to them and claim that the integrity of the sport was undermined after Diaz’s goal was chalked off.
“Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined,” the statement begins. “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.
“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.”
