Dermot Gallagher: One little question surrounding Liverpool's disallowed goal would have prevented terrible mistake

The audio that led to Luis Diaz’s goal being wrongly disallowed by VAR in Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham has been released publicly by the PGMOL; former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has provided his reaction to the audio release

Former Premier League referee

Tuesday 3 October 2023 20:09, UK

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher says the match officials were in no position to overturn their decision to disallow Luis Diaz's wrongly disallowed goal for Liverpool at Tottenham once the game restarted.

The audio that led to Luis Diaz's goal being wrongly disallowed by VAR has been released publicly by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited.

VAR Darren England and his assistant Daniel Cook did not overrule the incorrect on-field decision of offside after Diaz had scored at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

PGMOL said in a statement on Tuesday evening that «standards fell short of expectations» and it has identified three key learnings «to mitigate against the risk of a future error».

Speaking on Sky Sports, former referee Gallagher said: «It was a terrible mistake to make. Everyone has acknowledged that, we have all acknowledged that. It's the biggest talking point of the season, let alone this weekend.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

»It's now about the process and one of the processes is they will have to undertake from now is the VAR will have to ask the referee: 'what is the on-field decision?'

«If that little question had been asked and [Simon Hooper] said „offside“ then you've got a starting point. Then you can go forward. Unfortunately, because that question wasn't asked, they were under the impression the