Paddy Power to pay out on Luis Diaz bets after PGMOL release audio from VAR blunder which saw Liverpool forward’s goal wrongly disallowed for offside at Tottenham

• PGMOL have released the VAR audio from Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat by Tottenham
• Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly ruled as offside during the match by VAR 
• Mail Sport’s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here

Paddy Power have pledged to pay out on Luis Diaz bets after PGMOL released audio from VAR blunder which saw the Liverpool forward’s goal wrongly disallowed for offside at Tottenham.

The bookmaker says it will pay out on bets made online and in-store on Diaz to be 1st/anytime goalscorer, score or assist, have 1 + shot on target, have 3 + shots and score or be shown a card on Saturday.

A Paddy Power spokesman said: ‘After hearing the audio loud and clear from Saturday’s sh*tshow at Spurs – apparently unlike those on the pitch – we’ve stepped in to pay out on Luis Diaz.’

The audio recording of the discussion between the match officials that led to Luis Diaz’s goal being wrongly disallowed was on Wednesday made public, with VAR Darren England swearing twice upon being told of his mistake.

Diaz was incorrectly adjudged to have been offside on the field after netting in the first half of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday, a decision which was not over-ruled by England and his assistant Daniel Cook.

The PGMOL have released the full audio from the VAR hub during Liverpool ‘s controversial 2-1 defeat to Tottenham, that saw referee Simon Hooper incorrectly disallow the Reds a goal

VAR official Darren England (left) and VAR assistant Dan Cook (right) were dropped from their roles for upcoming fixtures after the high-profile error

 Luis Diaz was incorrectly adjudged to have been offside on the field after scoring at Spurs

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Liverpool asked for a recording of what happened and Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has taken the step to publicly release the communication into how the bungled verdict was reached.

PGMOL said England ‘lost sight of the on-field decision’ due to ‘a lapse of concentration and loss of focus’.

In the recording, England says ‘check complete, check complete. That’s fine, perfect’ before the replay operator and then Cook question whether the correct decision has been made.

‘Offside, goal, yeah. That’s wrong that, Daz,’ Cook is heard saying.

England swears upon realising the error and then says ‘they’ve restarted the game. Can’t do anything, can’t do anything’ as the replay operator makes repeated calls to delay the match.

England then issues another expletive before the tape finishes, the end of an incident in which PGMOL, the referees’ body, admitted immediately after the match that a ‘significant human error’ had occurred.

Liverpool said ‘sporting integrity has been undermined’, while they released a statement the following day indicating they would explore their options given the ‘clear need for escalation and resolution’.

PGMOL said in a statement accompanying the audio: ‘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.

‘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.’

England and Cook have not been included among the officials for duty in the coming weekend’s Premier League fixtures.

The pair had already been replaced for the remainder of their matchweek seven duties – England was due to be fourth official at Nottingham Forest v Brentford on Sunday, with Cook scheduled to be assistant referee for Monday’s Fulham-Chelsea clash.

How the latest VAR controversy unfolded – transcript in full 

Assistant referee 1 (Adrian Holmes): ‘All good. Both holding. Both holding’

Referee (Simon Hooper): ‘Yeah, leave it alone.’

Assistant referee 1: ‘Waiting. Delaying, delaying.’

VAR (Darren England): ‘Possible offside, Diaz.’

Assistant referee 2 (Simon Long): ‘Give it.’

Assistant referee 1: ‘Coming back for the offside, mate.’

VAR: ‘Just checking the offside. Delay, delay.’

VAR: ‘Give the kick point, let’s go. Kick point please?’

Referee: ‘Yeah, no worries mate.’

Replay operator: ‘So, here we are.’

Referee: ‘Wait.’

Replay operator: ‘Just get a tight angle.’

VAR: ‘Yeah give me 2D line ready after this one from frame two after that.’

Replay operator: ‘So frame two there?’

VAR: ‘That’s fine. Perfect, yeah. 2D line on the left boot.’

Replay operator: ‘Let me just switch angles.’

VAR: ‘Romero, I think it is?’

Replay operator: ‘I think it might be this angle better? Happy with this angle?’

VAR: ‘Yep.’

—

Replay operator: ‘2D line on the boot?’

VAR: ‘2D line on the boot.’

Replay operator: ‘Yep, okay. So 2D line on the boot.’

VAR: ‘And stop. Check complete, check complete. That’s fine, perfect.’

Assistant referee 1: ‘Playing.’

Referee: ‘Cheers mate.’

VAR: ‘Thank you mate.’

Referee: ‘Well done boys, good process.’

Replay operator: ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait. The on-field decision was offside.. Are you happy with this?’

Assistant VAR (Dan Cook): ‘Yeah.’

Replay operator: ‘Are you happy with this?’

Assistant VAR: ‘Offside, goal, yeah. That’s wrong that, Daz.’

VAR: ‘What?’

Replay operator: ‘On-field decision was offside. Are you happy with this image? Yeah, it is onside. The image that we gave them is onside.’

Assistant VAR: ‘He’s playing him, he’s gone offside.

VAR: ‘Oh f***’

Replay operator: ‘Delay, delay. Oli (Kohout, PGMOL Hub Ops) saying to delay, Oli’s saying to delay.’

VAR: ‘Pardon?’

Replay operator: ‘Oli’s calling in to say delay the game. The decision is onside.’

VAR: ‘Can’t do anything.’

Replay operator: Oli’s saying to delay, Oli’s saying to delay.’

VAR: ‘Oli?’

Fourth official: ‘Yeah.’

Replay operator: ‘Delay the game, to delay the game? Stop the game.’

VAR: ‘They’ve started the game. Can’t do anything, can’t do anything.’

Assistant VAR: ‘Yeah they’ve restarted. Yeah. No.’

VAR: ‘I can’t do anything. I can’t do anything. F***.’

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