Watch the recap: Tottenham beat Liverpool 1-2 from a dramatic own goal in the 96th minute/Sport1
Liverpool's goal disqualification scandal against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday has rocked English football. After the referees' union admitted that "human error" led to the cancellation of a legitimate Luis Diaz goal that would have put the Reds ahead in a game that ended in their 2-1 defeat, it was revealed what happened in the VAR room that led to the failure.
It turns out that screen referee Darren England thought the decision on the pitch was to approve Diaz's goal, so he ordered head referee Simon Hooper to stick to the original ruling. Soon after, Tottenham resumed play with a loose ball and it was probably too late to repair the damage.
Today it was announced that the assignments of England and Dan Cook, who was an assistant in the VAR system yesterday, as screen referees for Nottingham Forest's games against Brentford today (16pm, Sport00) and Chelsea v Fulham tomorrow (1pm, Sport22) have been cancelled.
His gate was unjustly cancelled. Luis Diaz/GettyImages, Marc Atkins
Sky pundit and former player Gary Neville described the incident on Twitter from an angle he said could not be seen on TV: "You could see on the referee's face that they thought about turning the game back and confirming the goal. There is a moment when the judge looks like he is sick. They knew at that moment, but for some reason they didn't go back or couldn't go back because of the rules."
Former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher, who is also now a commentator on British television, tweeted: "This is a shocking mistake no matter how it was made. If they knew right after the free kick that they made a huge mistake, it's stupid that they didn't go back just because the game has been renewed."
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Exchanging bites over the refereeing scandal were the pair of Argentina teammates. Tottenham defender Cristian Romero celebrated the victory in an Instagram post, to which Liverpool midfielder Alexis McAllister commented: "It's normal when you play with 12 players." Romero sent him to "cry at home."
Other Liverpool players are also naturally frustrated after a game in which, in addition to a goal disqualification, two players were sent off for Jurgen Klopp's team. Defender Virgil van Dijk told the BBC he was "losing faith in VAR. All the decisions seem strange." Goalkeeper Alisson added: "I don't like to talk about refereeing and we're not allowed to talk about refereeing either. Sometimes it feels like we're prisoners. When someone opens their mouth, they are punished from all directions."
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