‘Total breakdown’ – former star referee addresses Liverpool VAR mistake

Former referee Mark Clattenburg explains mistakes amid VAR controversy in Liverpool’s clash against Tottenham

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg believes a total communication breakdown caused the VAR error that marred Liverpool’s 2-1 loss at Tottenham.

Luis Diaz‘s goal was wrongly disallowed for offside due to a mistake between the on-field officials and VAR. The Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) reportedly admitted fault and contacted Liverpool post-match to apologize.

In his Daily Mail column(h/t liverpoolecho), Clattenburg pinpointed where things went awry between referee Simon Hooper, assistant Adrian Holmes and VAR operators Darren England and Dan Cook.

 “There was a total breakdown in basic communication at Tottenham on Saturday. Assistant Adrian Holmes should have been shouting ‘offside, offside’ after raising his flag against Luis Diaz. Referee Simon Hooper should have been relaying that to the players, too. All this should have been picked up by their earpieces and heard by VAR Darren England and his assistant Dan Cook at Stockley Park.They should have been under no illusions Diaz had been flagged offside. But for whatever reason, England and Cook thought the on-field decision was onside.”

He argued clearer relaying of information at each step could have prevented the gaffe.

“When England said ‘check complete’ to Hooper, he was mistakenly confirming not that the Diaz goal was good but that it should be disallowed. England should have expanded on his decision. Instead of ‘check complete’, he should have said: ‘I’ve checked the potential offside. It’s onside, therefore I’m awarding the goal. Check complete.’ That way, we would not have this controversy.”

In a recent report, it was also revealed that England and Cook were part of a team that was refereeing in UAE 48 hours earlier. Clattenburg agreed the international journey surely had an impact on the two unfortunate officials, while also recalling his personal experiences.

“I can tell you, those long international trips take it out of you, I remember doing a Europa League game in Krasnodar, Russia, on a Thursday. I returned to referee a Premier League match at the weekend and by full time, I couldn’t remember what had happened over the last 90 minutes, I was that tired.”

That seems like an odd reasoning because all it required for them to function normally was to communicate properly. Players play 90 minutes of football thrice a week at times without much trouble.

The PGMOL under Howard Webb have spent a significant amount of money to improve the accuracy of the VAR. But it seems they have ignored the well-being of the central figures of that system in that process – the referees.

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Liverpool justifiably felt aggrieved by the officiating in their first league loss. VAR will undoubtedly be on its toes in the Premier League in the coming weeks, but hopefully, this is an incident that ensures that the system changes for the better in the long run, and not just right now for them to save face.