Dermont’s job is not to defend the referees, it’s to tell us what’s wrong and right. Someone needs to make sure he knows that

This goes beyond club loyalty. This isnt even about Liverpool's or any one club. These jokers are literally ruining our game.

Warnock did one hell of a job here, he expressed every fan's viewpoint perfectly

Dermot protecting his fellow Referees 😢

When being questioned Dermot always looks like he’s thinking “how am I going to get my boys out of this one!?”

It wasn’t just one mistake but plenty of ridiculous decisions. VAR and the ref was an absolute disgrace.

Even as a City fan I have to feel for liverpool on this. Refereeing in England has been shocking for years.

This whole segment had potential to be positive, thought provoking and really interesting. Instead we got 4 people trying their best to not offend anyone. What VAR has done is criminal so unless we are willing to talk about it more open and honestly what’s the point. The retired ref could’ve offered wisdom, advice moving forward, radical changes instead of just trying to protect his tribe.

All premier clubs should get behind this, it is not just a Liverpool issue.

It’s not a mistake, it’s a catastrophe

Fair play to the glasses guy for sticking it on him. Dermot didn't expect this, he thought it would be a bit of grovelling and explaining that it was human error, job done.

This is not just a mistake, it is straight up MATCH FIXING at the highest level

Dermot wouldn’t understand integrity if it sat on his face

Liverpool is correct. This does undermine the integrity of the premier league. I see nothing wrong in Liverpool's statement. A lot of people like me are now suspicious of VAR and refrees...

Diaz's goal, Salah got booked for nothing, it was a foul on him. Robbo got robbed as well, as did Gakpo when he got snapped, the blatent corners denied, VAR intervened and showed only a still of Curtis's challenge, as Jones was being pulled back and actually got to the ball first and there was more controversial decisions, with nefarious actions around them. This is a bad look, it smells of corruption, but no-one will say it.

If they had have blown the whistle as soon as they realised which would have been a few seconds after the restart. The ref calls over Klopp and Ange and explains the situation then gives the goal. We would all be applauding. Nobody is angry at a mistake, they are angry at the handling of the mistake.

They chose to not award the goal even after they knew they made a mistake. That was less than a minute after. That's the worst part.

6/7 people making a mistake at the same time? That's no mistake

It wasn’t just a mistake it was a horrific event

When players did mistakes they’ll get red card When referees did mistakes Its just happened 😢

Its not a mistake if they keep doing it every week

I’d respect the hell out of any ref who would be willing to stand up to the FA’s scrutiny and fix the mistake. The game is NOT ABOUT YOU. They’ve made it entirely about themselves by standing on their manners and protocol. Steve is 100% right here

1) The on-field ref simply must tell the VAR officials what the on-field call is. 2) Instead of these "Check complete" ambiguities, they must add "good goal" or "off-side" to the response. Make it "Good goal, Check complete, Good goal", and "Off-side, Check complete, Off-side." 3) When the refs realize a mistake of such magnitude has been made, the ref should be able to stop the game, pull the two managers together, show them the video of why the call was wrong, and correct it to the right decision, 4) Only VAR specialist will do VAR. Don't let the refs rotate between on-field and VAR duties from game to game. 5) The refs and VAR officials who are responsible for this mistake are just as clumsy as Curtis Jones' challenge that got him red-carded. No ill-intend, but clumsiness. The difference is that Jones’ challenge was potentially damaging but this refs’ mistake is proven damaging. If Jones is banned for 3 games, how many games are these VAR officials getting banned? The "gods" at PGMOL must make that transparent if Howard Webb wasn't faking it when he emphasized transparency. 6) At the end of the PL season, if Liverpool misses out on anything by 3 points, or if Tottenham qualifies/wins anything by 3 points, an asterisk needs to be put next to the PL table to indicate the refs' mistake contributes to that final standing. This refs' mistake must be engraved into the PL history forever moving forward.

There are so many wrong decisions made by those referees , Dermot is just insane

Everybody makes mistakes, but the idea that there’s no mechanism to rectify ones as big as this as soon as it’s possible to do so is simply unacceptable.

Wow Dermot criticising a decision, I never thought I’d see the day

The fact that in the past year alone there have been at least 14 decisions bad enough that the refereeing body had to come out and publicly apologise without any repercussions for the same people making the same ‘mistakes’ is insane. Like there’s 14 so bad that they had to come out to apologise, not behind the scenes discussions, public apologies. There have been hundreds of bad decisions and mistakes but the fact that 14 were THAT bad there’s an issue

The exact problem with VAR: "Somebody should have been checking that VAR was correct."

Dermot's a law robot. I'm not a Liverpool fan but they're entirely right. For years they've hidden behind the "we're only human" excuse. It's now obvious that even with the tools, there are too many of them who are entirely incompetent and lack even the most basic common sense or understanding of the wider game. They only understand the rule book and even that they can't apply properly!

Dermot still can’t help himself trying to have common sense. Protecting his mates as much as he can.

Dermot Gallagher is completely missing the point with his « it’s a mistake » comment. Too many people involved to simply say that. This wasn’t a one man take. I can’t wait to hear the audio if it gets released. If it isn’t released someone is not telling the truth and integrity is out of the window.

I really dont know why after they knew a error had been made after a few seconds someone in the VAR office didnt just shout out to the ref and tell him it was the wrong decision and a goal should be awarded, they must of noticed them about to take the free kick surely.

Dermot stating he disagrees about sporting integrity, but fails to understand that if the process is not being fairly used consistently and it costs teams at the end of the season, like Liverpool missing out on something by a point, the integrity of the competition is affected. Difficult to see how this system was meant to eliminate subjectivity and support referees, but is doing the opposite.

"I dont understand what that means " yeah that's the problem Dermot👍

This is not just a mistake. It's an absolutely shocking incident that's just beyond belief. Whoever made such a big error as this should be held to account. Players and team managers get carded for bad errors or mistakes they make in games but it seems referees/match officials always get away with it and nothing ever seems to change. When are these officials going to start being held accountable or penalised for their errors and incompetence. And no, Liverpool won't let this one go. Why should they? A big error like this could cost them something like a place in the top 4, the league title etc. VAR has got to learn from this now and make sure that something like this never happens again. Ever!

Simple way to avoid this happening again in future if for the VAR to say "Award the Goal" or "Disallow the Goal" rather than "Check Complete" like they do in Rugby League when a try is referred!!

The integrity of the game is 100% at stake, people are beginning to question if there is corruption in PGMOL because professional refs should not be making so many shocking decisions

I really don't get how badly they get these easy decisions wrong. Onana pen vs. wolves were so easy, but they got wrong. Diaz offside so easy, but they get wrong

Its genuinely a disgrace the amount of errors VAR makes, feels like there’s a controversy every match week

We have seen games be restarted for a pen to be taken even when the final whistle had been blown and players in the changing room

Liverpool have every right to question the sporting integrity

The problem isn’t just this wrong decision, it’s all of them that they are making week in week out which is a disgrace

They should be saying "Off side" or "On side" Not "Check complete". It is systematic error.

The idea from the guy with glasses that the referee would have 'allowed' a 'goal' is absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous idea from an actual adult.

“Referees make mistakes all the time” that in itself is the problem

Dermot makes sitting on the fence into an art form

As a Liverpool fan this decision still makes me wanna cry whenever I see it or think about it. I’m still waiting for PGMOL to give some compensation to my club but I know it will never happen 💔

The strange thing is VAR worked just fine for Curtis Jones red card when showing the referee a still photo of the tackle when that is not supposed to happen?

It’s not a mistake. They didn’t even draw the lines and check it. They just allowed what was called on the field.

"No way it should happen again" - It DID happen again because it happened against Arsenal in their title race when playing Brentford last season. VAR drew the lines on the wrong player and allowed a clear offside goal.

"ThIs WiLl NeVeR hApPeN aGaIn" It happened last season Arsenal vs Brentford and it's happened here, it will keep happening until something serious is done about it.

Those guys on VAR room were watching something other than the game.

By sporting integrity undermined it means you have spoiled Liverpool's chance to go top of the table with the red card, offside goal and 1 wrong yellow card decision on Jota. In a massive game like that these decisions are unforgivable.

Its crazy to me, you didnt need any lines it was onside so obviously.... and Diaz what a finish, such a great goal. I think that nobody was even in the VAR room.... its so so bad but clubs have to start fighting these terrible decisions, they can cost teams titles/relegations etc.

One question only: If the VAR didn’t tell anyone through the communication system they were using that they have made a serious error right at the moment they realised they had made a mistake, then this is a problem of integrity. If they speak out immediately, I don’t think the situation cannot be resolved in some way. Now the VARs made the on field ref and the whole system a total joke.

If the referee simply asks var " is there any reason I should disallow this goal, we think it's offside," please check"or "should I award this goal if We've made an error, would be much simpler, especially microphoned up as in rugby.

Im surprised Dermot didn't try and say they got it right, he usually does

This is not just a mistake by one human. This is complete system breakdown

Having 4 officials in the VAR booth & to not have anyone to identify the error that is going on on the field is just Lazy of the officials at a very high stake game. This is just shambolics.

For PL this is a catastrofic. This is a league with so many good teams you can win or loose by a point so this can absolutely never ever happen. Especially with 2 people controlling it. I guess the assistent is there for safety reasons. Sorry aint gonna cut it. You just cant trust the desicions anymore..

In light of what has happened with Barcelona recently, I think the integrity of football officiating has to be called into question. I think match fixing should be a topic taken seriously, especially now. There’s so much money depending on football so for people to suggest it’s a crazy idea that people WOULD NOT try to fix the games is bizarre. If Barcelona and juventus can do it then it’s a very real possibility at this point

They say it's "human error", and we all have sympathy with someone making an honest mistake. But, I think they are avoiding the issue. What are the procedures? What actually happened? If all it takes is someone to slightly mishear something and we get a wrong decision then the issues are much deeper. And why didn't we get the lines drawn to show it was onside? That hasn't been explained. Don't we usually get a picture with the lines drawn, regardless of whether it is eventually called onside or offside?

If it was the retake that alerted them, surely a free kick instead of a centre kick being taken is the *incorrect* way to restart play and therefore the referee is within their powers to stop the game and rectify it, even after the ball has been kicked?

Not calling back the play after the wrong decision just because the play was already resumed was total b.s. Referees call back plays that had already resumed all the time - freekicks taken while the ball is rolling, players argue on throw-ins and the wrong team restart the play by taking the throw-in, players trying to be clever and start short corners while it's supposed to be a throw-in near the corner flag, etc. Whistle, whistle. Pull the play back and make the correct play. That's all people care about - the correct and fair call. People make the rules and protocols. For the right reasons, people can change the protocols. May common sense prevail.

Dermot Gallagher's response to "how can the process be improved" shows the mindset and capability of the people who are selected to perform as referees. "Reminding officials of what they're supposed to do" is insufficient. You only have to watch other sports with video refereeing to see that the first step to prevent this from happening again is for the on-field decision to be communicated, so that the VAR officials can check to see whether that is correct. It's not rocket-science!

Why don’t fans get to listen to the VAR decision live like we can when listening to the TMO in rugby? It’s clear and straightforward. No need for football to go down this cloak and dagger nonsense.

Personally I think the improvement should be the VAR has to confirm the outcome and the next play. For example VAR has to say: "Check complete, goal stands, kick-off to Tottenham"

Steve is giving me joy with his honesty

Dermot doing his best to downplay it all 😂

You can stop the game for any reason the ref sees fit ( serious injury for example ) . VAR should have communicated with the referee as soon as it was clear to them the restart wasn't from the centre circle. Those few seconds allows the goal to be given ( correctly ) and the game to re commence.

A much worse thing happened in Egypt to my team Zamalek 2 weeks ago in a game the VAR called refree for a penalty check a handball he went to see it the conversation was aired live , the refree was saying he is not convinced because the handball was on the the 18 box line and VAR tried to tell him the line is Part of the box but he wasn't convinced either the man didn't know the line is part of the box and he is an international refree and even after being told by VAR he still didn't give us the penalty in a game ended in a draw 🤦🏻‍♂️

Pundits sounding like they were gonna have a minutes silence

You know its bad when Dermot can't even put a positive spin on it

It's NOT a mistake. It is sheer and utter incompetence.

İ lost my confidence in VAR last season. I even heard a commentator say "no guarantee they will draw the lines from the correct angles" and that was last season.

Problem is, that when a Ref made a bad decision, the fans could accept that as human error but when a Team of pros, and 2 other checkers, and every video angle they need, makes a Mistake that can't be claimed as Human Error, with all the time, angles, Slow motion, and Freeze frames

Stephen is absolutely spot on. Integrity must come first and foremost. Having respectable open discussions between officials, team Management and Captains alike. Officials need to be held accountable just as much as players, management and clubs alike. FA are now being proven to be just as corrupt as FIFA and UEFA.

As a Spurs fan, the refereeing in that match was abysmal. The first red card was bonkers, he didnt go in harshly, his foot slipped over the ball and it ended badly. As for the disallowed goal, they should be given it after the fact and the game should be a draw. They need to change the rules so that if a huge error is made, they can fix it.

Michael Oliver 38yrs Darren England 37yrs Andrew Madley 40yrs Anthony Taylor 45yrs Paul Tierney 42 yrs Simon Hooper 41yrs These fellas chase a game played by athletes in peak physical condition around for 90+ mins. Not only having to have the stamina to follow the action but also the mental stamina to assess and make immediate decisions. If I owned a multi billion dollar business, this model would not be the first I chose, not even the second......

VAR was brought on to eliminate human error, so when it doesn't, why shouldn't we escalate and investigate further into the whole protocol? Does this former ref mean that we should just accept the error and get on with it? They didn't even apologise for god sake!

For me it’s about communication. Firstly, VAR shouldn’t be assuming, they could ask to confirm the on field decision. And secondly, rather than being ambiguous and saying “check complete”, they could say “you can award the goal” or similar. With those small things, VAR knows what the ref thought and then the ref knows what decision VAR has come to.

Im a United fan and that’s borderline criminal. The ref should be suspended without pay for at least 2 weeks.

No one has mentioned how everyone doesn’t know the process. If sky is getting a direct line of commentary, before and exclusively compared to even the teams, surely this is a massive line of integrity that needs further analysis when the process isn’t understood by pundits and others alike? Cmon!?

At this point with what we know the game needs to be replayed. How do we continue the season knowing Liverpool should be at least 1 point better off. The sporting integrity of the competition is at stake.

Dermot doesn't understand the integrity being called into question. Yes he does. He's blindly backing his ref mates. Losing integrity to not even attempt to work out what that statement means. It's actually very clear.

Simple answer. Dont just say "check complete" , but give the result of the check. If he had said "check complete, onside" or similar then any confusion is highlighted and cleared up

The constant restating of “the referee is powerless” is so redundant and dull. It doesn’t matter. The decision was wrong. The men up in the VAR studio knew and spent an hour knowing it was wrong, and didn’t say a word. The solution on offer was absolutely the route that should’ve been taken. But instead, the men in that room rested in “ah but it’s the rules” and cost a team 3 points that could genuinely end up being crucial months later. They’re not going to be punished, they get to go on with their day and are protected by “the law.” Even if Liverpool only end up with a draw in the end, it still matters. Liverpool have every right to question the integrity of the situation and believe fixing/foul play could’ve been going on. More so liverpool and tottenham should replay this match

The way to avoid this happening again is to say to the on field ref offside or onside instead of check complete. That way they cannot get confused.

It’s funny how Dermot says that they don’t intentionally make a mistake, buts it’s irrelevant if a player unintentionally makes a bad tackle, like in this very Liverpool game.

This error is different to other howlers as it isn’t a subjective error the offside is an objective call and therefore is based on fact- goal or no goal. This is why the integrity of the game is being undermined as the VAR knew it was a goal for the whole game but did nothing. It isn’t a judgement which can have differing opinions and therefore the result should really be void (though not sure anyone expects that outcome in reality)

The crazy thing is they must have realized they screwed up as soon as play restarted but didnt say anything to the ref because "oh well there is nothing we can do about it now". That's nuts. And that's where the question of integrity comes in.

Don't you guys know the difference from other common referee's mistakes? In this case, VAR referee, who is in charge of judgement of offside or onside, confirmed that it was onside but the main on-field referee canceled the goal, reportedly just by communication error, and VAR referee should have intervened and made the on-field referee undo the decision but he failed to intervene as PGMOL stated.

When I make a "mistake" at work it might affect a few people in my team. This "mistake" has massive ramifications for an entire city and millions more. We already had the 21/22 season title decided by a ridiculous VAR gaffe, they can't keep getting away with this

That was the fastest offside goal check I have ever seen. And no lines were drawn.

Don't get why people are calling this an error, they got the money to make sure Liverpool lose, and they lost, the system works perfectly

it wasnt just the VAR.. I think what made this a whole different level of error is because the red cards were unfair, these mistakes changed completely differenet dynamics into the game. I mean how is this possible that Liverpool never had a red card before under Jurgen Klopp and suddenly they get four within just 2 months after the Premiere League started. It doesnt make sense. It's like theres something beyond that we dont know abt.

There is no way they could have made an error of this magnitude. Corrupt officials.

Well Done Stephen Warnock 👏🏽

Brighton against Man U they notice an error after the game is ended so they pull it back but then want to say they aren’t going to pull this back to the error incident citing the game restarting what a cop out . That decision could change the whole game drastically

This mistake is honestly so easily avoided. In cricket when there is an umpire review. They confirm what the soft signal was on field at the start of the review. It takes a second to confirm with the referee what decision was made on the pitch. Not that they should have to considering there are multiple people with working eyes in that VAR room.