A ‘significant human error’ caused a goal in Saturday’s Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool to be disallowed.
Those are the words of the PGMOL, the body in charge of referees in the Premier League.
That Spurs went on to win the game against 9-men Liverpool via a late own goal has undoubtedly rubbed salt into an open wound for the Reds.
But the game SHOULD NOT be replayed.
However.
Earlier this season the Football Association (FA) set a precedent in the FA Cup that means really, the game SHOULD be replayed.
Holyport beat Hartpury University 2-1 in an Extra Preliminary Round tie but were ordered to replay the match at Holyport for a much less serious refereeing error.
In this case, the referee mistakenly sin binned a Hartpury player, highlighting what is fast becoming a divide in the way the national game is played at professional and semi professional level.
That’s because unlike in league competition, sin bins aren’t used in the FA Cup. It’s a refereeing mistake, but I think we can all agree it’s not as serious as VAR officials getting confused and wrongly disallowing a goal.
It is ludicrous that the game was replayed (Holyport managed to win), you can’t open the door to matches being replayed because of an officiating error. We’d be here until next Christmas.
We’ve all seen our teams benefit from errors and we’ve all seen our teams suffer from errors. It’s part of the game.
Referees make errors, players and managers make errors. It’s what makes football such a fascinating game.
