The head of the PGMOL, Howard Webb, recently opened up on the controversy surrounding Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal in Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
Michael Owen asked him on Sky Sports why referee Darren England didn’t stop the game after the VAR officials realized their mistake and stated that the goal should’ve been given.
Webb answered: “I heard quite a few people ask that question and I understand why people would ask that. Actually, the VAR and AVAR asked themselves that question when the penny dropped as to what happened.
“At that point, they considered whether they could intervene to stop the game. They recognised the Laws of the Game are set by FIFA and the International Football Association Board (IFAB) doesn't allow that. There is a process in place that sits in the Laws of the Game about how we use VAR to make sure it is delivered consistently throughout every league in the world.
“It doesn't allow you to go back in those circumstances. As such, they didn't intervene. I know the IFAB, in fact before this situation happened, they were going to do a full review of the Laws of the Game relating to the use of VAR. It has been in place for seven years now, when it was written there had never been a game utilising VAR anywhere in the world.
“They put a protocol in place and it has served the game really well. But we now have lived experience of situatoons and we can feed into that and IFAB can look into whether there is a need to tweak some of it. I am sure they will be looking at this aspect of how VAR is used.”
Webb is clearly trying to defend his officials for the awful mistake they made, which ultimately cost Liverpool at least a point (if not three).
