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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Jonathan Gorrie

Howard Webb addresses VAR controversy after Liverpool’s loss to Tottenham

Howard Webb is confident new protocols will help avoid officiating errors such as the one that saw Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham being ruled out last month.

The PGMOL’s chief refereeing officer believes the rule that meant the game could not be pulled back after those on VAR had realised the error will be addressed.

Reds manager Jurgen Klopp called for a replay of the game after the PGMOL admitted a “significant human error” after a dramatic contest in north London, settled by Joel Matip’s last-minute own goal.

Diaz was initially flagged offside, a decision confirmed by VAR Darren England before realising the player was actually onside.

The audio was released last week which showed England failing to realise the on-field decision had been offside before saying “Check complete.”

Webb was speaking with Michael Owen on the new Match Officials: Mic’d Up show, saying: “One of the things that you know this has brought into sharp focus is the need to reiterate some of those communication protocols that are really valuable in VAR to prevent this type of thing happening.

“Not just saying, ‘Check complete. Check complete’ because what are you ‘check completing’? Say: ‘Check complete. Goal confirmed.’ Or in this case, ‘Check complete. Offside confirmed.’ ”

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