Jurgen Klopp’s Important Message Following Liverpool VAR Controversy

Amid the fallout from Liverpool FC’s controversially and incorrectly disallowed goal against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, the club’s manager, Jürgen Klopp spoke about the importance of not targeting the individuals who made the error.

Liverpool had a perfectly good goal disallowed following errors in communication between the on-field referee Simon Hooper and the video assistant referee (VAR) Darren England.

The on-field decision on a goal scored by Luis Diaz was offside. As the goal was sent to be checked by the video technology, England apparently presumed that the decision on the field was onside.

When the check was completed and confirmed by the video technology as onside—that the goal should stand—England did not communicate anything to Hooper beyond saying “check complete”, presuming Hooper would award the goal.

Instead, Hooper stuck with his original decision of offside, presuming “check complete” means the on-field decision was correct.

It led to an unprecedented incident where the technology had been used effectively to award the goal, but the goal was still disallowed.

Even though the staff in the VAR hub eventually realised their error, the VAR and fourth official Michael Oliver decided that by the letter of the laws of the game, there was no way they could call it back once the game had been restarted.

The decision, the process, and the suitability of video technology in soccer have been discussed at length in the week since the incident.

The individuals involved have also been targeted, but in his post-match press conference, Klopp attempted to ease the focus on them and their error.

“It’s really important that we—as big as football is and important as football is, for us at least—deal with it in a proper way,” Klopp said.

“All of the people involved—the on-field ref, linesman, fourth official, and especially in this case the VAR—they didn’t do that on purpose. We should not forget that.

“Yes, it was a mistake, an obvious mistake, and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards.”

Liverpool went on to draw the game 1-1, finishing it with nine men as Curtis Jones was sent off after receiving a red card in the first half, and then Diogo Jota exited in the second after picking up two yellow cards.

The sendings-off were also controversial, but controversial in the more traditional, more subjective sense where the decisions could be understood and accepted in some way, as opposed to the offside decision which was just a glaring error, confirmed by the technology as a goal but still disallowed by the referees due to a poor process and muddled communication.

“I’m not angry with anybody of them, not at all,” added Klopp.

“It’s not only about the respect [for referees], but the only thing for human beings in general, that you should not go for them.

“They made a mistake and they felt horrible that night, I’m 100% sure, and that’s enough for me.

“So nobody needs further punishment or whatever, and I think we should just discuss it on a completely normal basis without emotions.”

As a result of the error, and following Liverpool FC’s statement that called for a review of the process so such an error can not be made again, Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) which oversees the refereeing of professional soccer in England, have altered the process to avoid such mistakes in the future.

The simple fix to add an extra layer of communication during these conversations between the on-field referee and VAR has been made, which will involve confirming the on-field decision before relaying the VAR’s own findings and decision.

It is a process that should have been in place already, and as Klopp alluded to, it is that lack of a watertight process that should be targeted and not the individuals themselves.