Tottenham vs Liverpool: Premier League Release Official VAR Audio for Luis Diaz Disallowed Goal

• The audio of why and how Luis Diaz's goal was disallowed has been made public
• The Liverpool winger saw his goal rejected despite being onside
• PGMOL owned up to the mistake, as Liverpool promised to pursue all available options

The Premier League has released the audio of how the match officials arrived at the controversial decision to disallow Luis Diaz's goal on September 30.

The Colombian found the back of the net in the 34th minute in North London but saw the flag go up, cutting off celebrations from the away end.

As it usually is, the decision was referred to the Video Assistant Referee(VAR) for review. The head of VAR for the encounter, Darren England, 'confirmed' the decision with centre referee Simon Hooper, awarding the free-kick to Tottenham.

The referees' body, PGMOL, issued an apology immediately, owning up to the mistake with replays showing that Diaz was totally onside as Mohamed Salah threaded the pass through.

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EPL releases VAR audio

The audio has now shed light on the breakdown of communication between Hooper and England. From the recording, the latter seemingly thought that the original decision was that the goal had been given, in that when he said 'check complete', he thought he was confirming it was a valid goal.

Here is how that conversation unfolded;

Replay operator: So 2D line on the boot

England: And stop. Check complete, check complete. That is fine, perfect.

Hooper: Well done, boys, good process.

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

Assistant VAR: Offside goal, yeah. That's wrong Daz.

England: What?

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

Assistant VAR: He's played on, he's gone offside.

England: Oh (expletive).

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Replay operator: Delay, delay, Oli's saying to delay, he's calling in to say delay the game, the decision is offside

By the time the VAR had realised his mistake, the game had already been restarted by a Tottenham free-kick and thus, play couldn't be stopped to award the goal.

Every VAR apology so far

When the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was introduced to the English Premier League in 2019, many thought that the era of players getting away with wrong decisions or referees making incorrect decisions was behind us.

However, this calendar year alone has seen the referee body, PGMOL, own up seven times to mistakes - a grim statistic given the technology was working optimally but has been let down by those in charge of interpretation.

Sports Brief takes a look at all the other times PGMOL has offered an apology after a glaring mistake in the use of the VAR.