A replay of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham could happen after all as a result of a specific UEFA loophole.
Jurgen Klopp called for the game to be replayed after the PGMOL confirmed that Luis Diaz’s opening goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside.
Damning audio from the VAR room has since been released which shows a simple failure in communication between the officials and the on-field referee Simon Hooper.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s Europa League clash against Union Saint-Gilloise, Klopp told reporters:
“Some people probably don’t want me to say, but not as the manager of Liverpool so much, more as a football person, the only outcome should be a replay. That’s how it is. It probably will not happen.”
He continued: “The argument against [a replay] will probably be if we open that gate then everybody will ask for it. The situation is so unprecedented that I’m 56 years old and I’m absolutely used to wrong decisions, difficult decisions but something like that as far as I can remember never happened.”
Although the likes of Gary Neville have dismissed the idea of a replay, it could be possible over the incorrect application of laws, rather than an outright mistake.
That’s according to the Independent, who claim that ‘since the VAR actually identified that Diaz was onside, the correct application of the laws of the game would have been to award a goal’, which evidently did not happen.
Therefore, the issue is no longer a simple mistake, but would fall under the provisions of a protest to UEFA, who allow clubs to submit protests – so long as they are within 12 hours of the game finishing.
