The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have sent out a statement, in which they admitted that Luis Diaz’s goal against Tottenham Hotspur should have stood.
The governing body conceded that there was “significant human error”.
Diaz broke in behind the defence of the North London club, firing into the bottom corner past Guglielmo Vicario.
Diaz had found the back of the net moments later but was flagged offside. VAR intervened to dissect the decision, but on the television cameras didn’t show the offside lines, with the Colombian seemingly onside.
Heung-min Son went on to put Spurs in front before Joel Matip inadvertently put into his own goal. The Reds came within touching distance of securing a point after Cody Gakpo’s goal on the stroke of half-time as well as defending for the last 20 minutes with nine-men after Diogo Jota’s sending off for a second bookable offence.
In a statement from the PGMOL, they announced that the goal should have stood.
“PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool,” it began.
“The goal by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”