“Oh hell, we were wrong!”, these were the words of Darren England, the operator of the VAR system in the Tottenham-Liverpool match, who realized the mistake made late.

Although the video images showed that Luis Diaz was in a regular position, the referee’s offside decision stood and the match continued. A terrible mistake in the strongest championship in the world, which put the technology in the center of criticism.

In addition to the accusations, in England they have started to demand the removal of the technology, which was supposed to resolve all suspicious cases during the matches, but in fact it is recording gross errors, for episodes which can be understood by the naked eye.

The British Referees Committee published the conversation between the VAR system referees and the operators. There is a marked lack of communication and concentration.

When Tottenham’s 2-1 win was tied at goalless level, Liverpool scored but referee Simon Hooper awarded offside after the assistant signaled.

Darren England on VAR announced that the check was over, as it is after every goal, and play continued. However, the images were clear, Diaz’s goal was neat and this was easily seen by the use of 2-dimensional lines on the pitch.

Here the problem took on even greater proportions, because Dan Cook, the replay operator, informed England about the blunder. “Wait, there was an offside position on the field. Is it okay? We were wrong”, were his words.

As the game continued, the fact that the goal was legal was not communicated to either the referees or the fourth official.

VAR and the assistant tried to figure out if they could stop the match, to make up for the error, but England said: “There’s nothing more we can do.” A huge blunder, which put the Premier League in the spotlight around the world.