After the serious video evidence glitch against his Liverpool FC, coach Jürgen Klopp has called for a replay of the game at Tottenham Hotspur. “It’s an obvious mistake,” Klopp told reporters in Liverpool on Wednesday. “This is unprecedented, this has never happened before.”
The German football coach emphasized: “I’m used to making wrong and difficult decisions, but nothing like this has ever happened before and that’s why I think a repeat is the right thing to do.”
In the Premier League game last weekend, a goal by Liverpool’s Luis Diaz in the 34th minute was disallowed for offside. Even after the video referee checked, the decision stood – wrongly. The referee association PGMOL admitted a “significant human error in the decision”.
“The most unfair circumstances and the craziest decisions”
The audio recording of the debate between the referee and the video referee was published on Tuesday evening. Accordingly, it was a perceptual error on the part of the video referee: he did not notice that the referees on the pitch had ruled it offside, but thought that the goal had been assessed as valid – and therefore did not intervene.
The recording did not change the situation, Klopp said. Immediately after the game, he said it had been the “most unfair circumstances and craziest decisions”. In addition to the incorrectly missed goal, his team also received two sending-offs and lost the game 1-2. The affected video referees have been withdrawn from further assignments for the time being.