Liverpool legend fumes at Simon Hooper after Spurs vs Liverpool

Formal Liverpool star Ryan Babel has gone viral for his post about referee Simon Hooper after all the controversy surrounding Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat against Tottenham. The game saw Jurgen Klopp’s side handed their first defeat of the season while Ange Postecoglou’s side were able to reach second place in the Premier League.

The game between two of the form sides in the division saw Liverpool reduced to nine men by the 70th minute with Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota given their marching orders by Hooper. The former saw his initial yellow card upgraded to red after the intervention of VAR, while Jota was sent off for two bookable offences in the second-half.

In the aftermath of the Tottenham loss, the ex-Liverpool winger took to X (formerly Twitter) to post a similar picture of Hooper, this time in a Spurs shirt. While the quality of the Photoshop work can be questioned, the meaning behind the post can’t.

The post was simply captioned: “Players of LFC should be allowed to post this picture tho…” which shows exactly what he was thinking. Many Liverpool fans will be feeling the same way after seeing their side so harshly done by. Babel doesn’t seem to have learned his lesson from the first instance over a decade ago.

The VAR controversy talking point
These were unfortunately not the most controversial calls to go against Klopp’s team as a Luis Diaz effort was incorrectly ruled out for offside while the scoreline was still at 0-0. Following the flag being raised by the linesman, the referee blew his whistle and awaited the verdict from VAR.

Inexplicably, it has been reported that Darren England – the VAR official on the day – believed the goal had been given, and saw no reason to intervene as Diaz was shown to be played onside by Micky van de Ven’s foot. England proceeded to tell Hooper that the decision was correct, but then it became clear an error had occurred when Tottenham took a free-kick following the incident.

Since the game finished, England and his assistant on the day – Dan Cook – have been stood down from their scheduled officiating duties for the remainder of the weekend and a statement has been released by PGMOL to acknowledge ‘significant human error’ had taken place.
Liverpool on Sunday, released a statement in which they criticized the VAR error that resulted in Luis Diaz having a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside against Tottenham.
The Reds have now said they will now ‘explore a range of options’.

Jurgen Klopp’s men were reduced to 10 men in north London on Saturday when Curtis Jones saw his challenge upgraded to a red card by referee Simon Hooper after an intervention from VAR.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Liverpool thought they had taken the lead when Mohamed Salah slipped in Diaz and the Colombian rifled into the far corner.

Unfortunately the linesman’s flag was raised for offside and after a brief check by VAR the game restarted with a free-kick to Tottenham.
However, it quickly became clear that an error had been made with Diaz clearly onside and refereeing body PGMOL released a statement after the match confirming that a ‘significant human error’ had occurred.
Spurs went on to win the match 2-1 thanks to a stoppage-time own goal from Joel Matip, with Diogo Jota also sent off in the second half after two yellow cards as the visitors were reduced to nine men.

It later transpired that VAR official Darren England mistakenly thought the on-field decision had been a goal so, after confirming that Diaz was onside, said ‘check complete’ to the on-field team – which they interpreted as meaning the goal had been offside.
While Liverpool appreciate PGMOL coming clean about the embarrassing mix-up, they have hit out at the usage of VAR and lack of intervention following the restart and say they will now explore options to ‘escalate and resolve’ the matter.

Liverpool have said the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) error that resulted in a goal by Luis Diaz being disallowed in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur undermined sporting integrity.
Nine-man Liverpool lost after Joel Matip scored an own goal in stoppage time but they should have taken the lead in the first half through Diaz whose goal was ruled out for offside.

VAR failed to overturn the incorrect decision to disallow the goal leading the referees’ body PGMOL to issue a statement blaming “significant human error” in the Premier League game.
“It is clear that the rules of the game were not applied correctly, which undermined sporting integrity,” Liverpool said in a statement on Sunday.

“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not given to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.”
The PGMOL said disallowing the Diaz goal was a “clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention”.

PGMOL added that it will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error.
Liverpool’s statement added: “That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.

“This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.”

Liverpool said the club recognised the pressures referees are under but that the application of VAR technology “should have alleviated them, not exacerbated them”, adding that they will explore the options available for resolution.

VAR official Darren England and his assistant Dan Cook were replaced for their next matches at Nottingham Forest-Brentford on Sunday and Monday’s Fulham-Chelsea game respectively. (Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Ken Ferris)