The PGMOL have released audio footage of the conversation between the match officials during their review of Luis Diaz's incorrectly disallowed goal in Liverpool's 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp's side suffered their first defeat of the season in controversial circumstances at the weekend, as Son Heung-min and a Joel Matip own goal cancelled out a Cody Gakpo leveller.
Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were also sent off for the Reds, although Klopp's 10 men should have broken the deadlock when Diaz was slipped through by Mohamed Salah and finished across Guglielmo Vicario.
However, the linesman's flag immediately went up, and the VAR room - comprising Darren England and assistant Dan Cook - gave Simon Hooper the green light to restart from a Tottenham free kick after a quick check.
Replays showed that Cristian Romero was playing Diaz onside, though, and the PGMOL admitted to a "significant human error" after learning of England and Cook's inexplicable blunder.
The PGMOL's admission of a mistake led to incessant calls to release the audio from the conversation, and the refereeing body have obliged, publishing a two-minute clip involving dialogue between Hooper, England, Cook, fourth official Michael Oliver and a replay operator.
After a 2D line is drawn on Romero's boot, which clearly shows Diaz behind the last Tottenham defender, England immediately says "check complete, check complete, that's fine, perfect", seemingly believing that the goal had been awarded on the field.
Play then restarts from a Tottenham free kick, as Hooper says "well done boys, good process", before the replay operator notices that something is wrong, exclaiming "the onfield decision was offside, are you happy with this?".
Cook replies "yeah, offside, goal, yeah. That's wrong that, Daz", to which England replies "what?" before being informed that the linesman had flagged for offside, leading the VAR official to blurt out an expletive.
Oliver subsequently requested a delay to the game, but with play already underway following the free kick, England bluntly replies that the officials "can't do anything" before swearing again.
A statement issued alongside the audio blamed a "lapse of concentration and loss of focus" from England, reading: "As stated shortly after the full-time whistle on Saturday evening, we acknowledged in a statement that a significant human error had occurred during the aforementioned match, which we recognise should have resulted in a goal being awarded through VAR intervention.
"As with all goal situations, the VAR team checked every aspect of the goal. After the on-field officials had disallowed the goal for offside, the checking phase and process started and was carried out correctly by the VAR. The kick-point selection was accurate and the use of a single 2D line on the foot of the second rear-most defender was also correctly positioned.
"The image created showed that Luis Diaz was clearly onside, without the need for the insertion of a second line. In a lapse of concentration and loss of focus in that moment, the VAR lost sight of the on-field decision and he incorrectly communicated "check complete", therefore inadvertently confirming the on-field decision. He did this without any dialogue with the AVAR [Assistant VAR].
"The match then restarted immediately. After a few seconds, the Replay Operator and then the AVAR queried the check-complete outcome with the VAR and asked him to review the image that had been created, pointing out that the original on-field decision had been offside, but this was not communicated to the on-field team at any point during the match.
"The VAR team then gave consideration as to whether the game could be stopped at that point, however the VAR and AVAR concluded that the VAR protocol within the Laws of the Game would not permit that to happen, and they decided intervention was not possible as play had restarted.
"The audio between the on-field team of match officials and the VAR team is below. PGMOL has carried out a review into the circumstances which led to this incorrect outcome and the subsequent learnings will be implemented to mitigate the risk of errors occurring in the future."
England and Cook have both been dropped from officiating duty for this weekend's round of Premier League fixtures following Saturday's unprecedented error. body check tags ::
