Liverpool officials were the first to notify Simon Hooper of his error in disallowing Luis Diaz’s goal against Tottenham Hotspur.
Diaz‘s first-half strike at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is already legendary, with the on-field officials and their VAR colleagues combining to serve up a massive mix-up.
It has been front-page news in the days since the tragedy. And, with last night’s game between Fulham and Chelsea being shown on Sky Sports, it was still a huge discussion topic.
Along with Jamie Carragher‘s excellent perspective, broadcaster Dave Jones revealed another fascinating nugget of knowledge.
“It is our understanding that the on field officials were not made aware of the decision until half-time,” he stated. “So they didn’t know there was anything wrong until the interval and I think it might have been Liverpool officials who made them aware of it to start with.”
Hooper in the dark until halftime
This is significant because there have been reports in the days after Saturday that referee Hooper was informed shortly after Diaz‘s goal was disallowed that the wrong judgement had been made.
VAR protocols, it appears, meant that it was too late to modify the decision at that point.
But if Hooper had known, he could have done something about it.
If such was the case, the referee should have taken some of the blame. If he was aware of what had occurred and did nothing to prevent it, he should be held accountable, protocol be damned.
However, the VAR authorities are clearly at fault in any case. They would have realised almost immediately that a massive error had been made and should have counselled Hooper on the best course of action.
If, as is suggested, they did not, this simply adds to their incompetence.
It should not be the responsibility of the team on the wrong side of the decision to inform the refereeing team of what their colleagues have already observed. Liverpool has every right to fight back as hard as they can.
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