The ludicrous way in which Luis Diaz’s goal was disallowed on Saturday proves the officials are not competent enough to use the technology available
Virgil van Dijk was reluctant to say the words. He didn’t want to contribute to the controversy already swirling around Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night, but he was still in a state of shock at the ludicrous nature of the mistakes made during Liverpool’s 2-1 loss and admitted that he was “losing faith” in VAR.
“It’s all a bit strange,” the Dutchman said when asked about Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal during the first half of the game in north London. “I don’t know who was in the VAR room and making that decision. It’s not a good thing. It doesn’t look well either. But it is what it is. We lost.”
Gary Neville was among those that believed Liverpool should have followed Van Dijk’s lead and just moved on from what Jurgen Klopp described as “the most unfair” of defeats. Neville argued on Twitter that the apology that PGMOL issued shortly after the full-time whistle should have been sufficient to quell Liverpool’s sense of injustice.
It wasn’t, though, and why would it be? Saying sorry can’t just be the end of the matter because enough is enough at this stage. It’s time to get rid of VAR.
VAR anything but effective
The introduction of technology into football was greeted as an overdue step forward for ‘The Beautiful Game’. Television match officials had long since proven their worth in sports such as rugby and cricket. The decision-making process was fast, transparent and effective. It has proven anything but in football.
The hope was that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) would not only aid match officials doing the most thankless task in football, but also bring a level of objectivity to the application of the rules that would make the game fairer, as well as significantly reducing both the amount of accusations of biased officiating from furious fans and the spread of ludicrous conspiracy theories.
Yet here we are, with Liverpool claiming that “sporting integrity” was “undermined” by the events of Saturday evening.
‘Sporting integrity undermined’
“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,” a club statement read. “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.”
Neville has argued that the wording of the club’s statement was “dangerous” – and with some justification. There should certainly be no insinuation that anything untoward took place at Tottenham. It was, as PGMOL acknowledged, simply a case of “significant human error”.
But that is exactly why VAR, in its current format, has got to go. It is not the technology that is erring here, but those operating it.
Apologies count for nothing
Liverpool are hardly the first victims of a dreadful VAR oversight. There have been 14 apologies issued by PGMOL since August 2022 and, as Klopp alluded to, they count for very little. After all, Liverpool aren’t going to get that Luis Diaz goal back. Wolves, for example, won’t belatedly receive the penalty they should have been awarded at Old Trafford earlier the season.
It is, of course, nice of the officials to acknowledge their mistakes, but it doesn’t help the teams that have lost points as a consequence. Teams can get relegated on goal difference. Titles can be decided by a solitary point, as Liverpool well know. These decisions, then, can be incredibly costly – in every sense of the word.
Technology killing joy and slowing down the game
Mystifying mistakes and controversial calls are nothing new, of course, and the game can never be completely error-free. There is just too much subjectivity surrounding what constitutes a handball or serious foul play.
The debate over the Curtis Jones red card is a perfect case in point. Neville, for example, felt the midfielder only warranted a yellow because there had been no malice in the challenge; other pundits insisted that Jones had to be dismissed because he’d gone over the top of the ball. Each argument has its merits.
But the problem is offside decisions – which should, in theory, be straightforward – are sparking outrage because of lines being drawn incorrectly. They’re also taking far too long, which only serves to prove that we are not talking about ‘clear and obvious’ errors here. We’re instead seeing lines being drawn to establish whether a player’s shoulder was offside. It’s ridiculous and goes against the spirit of the game.
For the most part, fans remain willing to accept officials getting decisions wrong. To err is human, after all. But what they cannot accept is officials making a mess of decisions when they have replays available to them.
If they’re going to botch offsides like the one at Tottenham, then what’s the point in having the technology at all given the fact that, in general, it’s already killing the joy of celebrating goals and resulting in painfully slow reviews?
‘A horrendous day for VAR’
When VAR was first introduced, the ethos was “minimal interference, maximum benefit”. But we’re now seeing games being stopped at regular intervals and incorrect calls being made. The positives simply do not outweigh the negatives.
What happened at Tottenham was, as Alan Shearer pointed out on ‘Match of the Day’, “incomprehensible”. “It’s been a horrendous day for the officials and VAR,” the former England forward said. “We have seen some howlers but that is the biggest. Trust is going to be a big thing going forward.”
Greater transparency and better communication would obviously help, but the problem is that Van Dijk is not alone. Many, many other players and coaches have already lost faith in the entire process.
Liverpool right to seek a ‘solution’
VAR was meant to make life easier for officials – but it’s actually making things worse. It’s been made abundantly clear this season alone that technology can only be effectively used for establishing whether the ball crossed the line, simply because it’s so black and white. Everything else is just too subjective, too prone to human error.
Liverpool are obviously going to take plenty of flak for being ‘sore losers’ and going down a path of “escalation” – but, truth be told, it’s the right move because this needs to come to a head. If nothing is done, more ridiculous mistakes are going to be made. That’s absolutely obvious – and inevitable.
Other clubs, coaches, players and fans should actually step forward to support Liverpool in this instance because a “resolution” to this ongoing farce is undeniably required and, right now, the only possible “solution” is ditching VAR while the game’s rule-makers and officials figure out how and if they can actually use it.
