VAR controversy plagues the English Premier League

Liverpool were at the receiving end of a harsh VAR call when Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) has taken centre-stage once again in England following yet another calamitous error. This time, Liverpool found themselves the victim of a terrible judgement during their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur recently.

Liverpool’s perfectly legal opening goal was ruled out after a communication breakdown between the on-field referee Simon Hooper as well as his video-assisting referee Darren England at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Following the game, significant protests broke out in the Premier League with Liverpool releasing an official statement denouncing the decision. Even Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou sympathised with their opponents and agreed that they’d been unfortunate in this regard.

Manchester City and Arsenal managers Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta have also slammed the referees and their poor officiating in England.

As a result of this, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the official refereeing body conceded that "significant human error"  had resulted in the incorrect decision. However, this forced Liverpool to come out with their own statement threatening to "explore the range of options available".

"This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention," the PGMOL added, saying that it would conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the mistake.

Following the club’s demand to release the dialogue between the officials during the decision-making process, PGMOL gave in and decided to release the full audio.

FIFA laws prohibit the live broadcast of this audio but PGMOL have occasionally released snippets when trying to bunk the misconceptions around the technology - rather than at the demand of angry clubs.

The audio has now been published on the Premier League’s official website. PGMOL has also released a statement that has confirmed the series of events that resulted in the refereeing error.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp felt exasperated by the series of refereeing decisions. He has also deemed the apology insufficient suggesting that it does not help their case in any meaningful way now.

"Who does that help now? We had that situation in the Wolves-Man United game. Did Wolves get the points? No," the Reds' gaffer reflected.

The controversy surrounding VAR has been a recurring theme in England over the last few seasons but it has only led to significant debates regarding its effectiveness as well as overall impact. The whole point of the introduction of VAR was to reduce human error and ensure a more objective outlook on football matches, with technology making it easier to judge on-field actions.

However, the implementation of VAR has drawn plenty of criticism. Critics argue that VAR has taken away the spontaneity and emotion of the game, while proponents believe it is necessary for accurate decision-making.

The audio clip released from the game between Liverpool and Tottenham clearly demonstrates that the communication process needs to be streamlined between on-field officials and VAR officials.

Even Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has emphasized on the importance of the teams getting what they deserve and not being denied by the referees and officials.

"For sure, you know at the end you want to get what you deserve," he said. "You want to minimize errors that you cannot control away from the work and the job that you do on a daily basis.

"Everybody is trying to have a really clean and honest game but at the end, you have to earn the right to win it and play in the conditions that the rules allow. When that doesn't happen it's extremely frustrating."