At least one Liverpool player is technically open to an FA charge after expressing frustration over a VAR mess-up. Common sense must simply prevail.i
The consequences of Liverpool’s VAR error against Spurs were commensurate with the scale of the error.
Certainly the worst mistake made in the Premier League since the introduction of technology, which was still being talked about more than 48 hours after the end of the match.
This is much more embarrassing than poor subjective judgment and technology-specific error.
Of course, Liverpool would not have got the goal even without VAR, because the on-field assistant would have wrongly said “offside”, but it is much more difficult not to intervene due to a wrong call “Check Complete” whereas it is the opposite. was meant for the stomach than a Rogue flag.
Never before have all officials been aware almost immediately that a serious, game-changing mistake had been made, but felt unable to change it.
Presumably, no one was prepared to make the decision that the circumstances warranted to ignore the VAR protocol – and when Spurs scored shortly afterwards, the situation quickly became completely irreversible.
Common sense certainly did not prevail. But there is at least a chance the FA will use some of it to assess the impact of the incident.
Naturally, Liverpool players and staff were shocked by the result. To his everlasting credit, Jurgen Klopp was remarkably reserved in his post-match interview given the circumstances, but some of his players let their emotions run a little more.
Alexis Mac Allister in particular has undoubtedly opened himself up to the technical possibility of an FA charge, as reported by the Metro.
In a heated and now-deleted exchange with international teammate Cristian Romero on Instagram, the Liverpool midfielder said Spurs’ victory was “normal when you have 12 players”.
According to the letter of the law, the FA probably feels obliged to deem this to question the integrity of a match official.
This justifies the accusations. But under the circumstances it would be completely ridiculous to impose such a thing.
A perfectly valid goal was disallowed due to an administrative error: the PGMOL admitted that the VAR process failed miserably. Although the referees were not on Tottenham’s side as suggested by Mac Allister, they categorically awarded Spurs the win through their decision making.
Players are already expected to be like robots in the amount of football they are designed for. Now they are also asked to never show any emotion.
To be fair, even Mac Allister’s outburst is relatively subdued in the context of the scale of the injustice done to Liverpool.
It is too late to salvage anything from this incident, which has left the reputation of VAR and PGMOL in tatters. But at least the FA can use some common sense and ensure the situation doesn’t get worse.
