- Ben Foster claimed Sky was ‘in bed’ with VAR chiefs after Liverpool lost to Spurs
- The PGMOL hit back at accusations that they pressured Sky to cover up a major blunder
- Listen to the latest episode of the Mail Sport podcast ‘It all begins’
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The PGMOL has strongly refuted claims by ex-Premier League goalkeeper Ben Foster that referees pressured Sky Sports to cover up the major VAR blunder during Liverpool’s controversial 2-1 defeat to Tottenham last weekend.
The fallout from the match dragged on this week after the refereeing group admitted a ‘significant human error’ had been made, prompting VAR Darren England and assistant Dan Cook to withdraw after not awarding Luis Diaz’s first-half goal, despite they were clearly offside.
The Colombian striker’s goal was ruled offside by referees on the pitch – and a leaked audio from the VAR studio revealed England told referee Simon Hooper ‘check complete’ as he wrongly thought the goal was datum.
Anger over the highly publicized incident has led to Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp calling for a replay of the match, which Spurs won in the final minute thanks to a Joel Matip own goal, while Liverpool also saw two men taken off in controversial circumstances were sent off the field.
Foster, a former Man United and Wrexham goalkeeper, gave his opinion on the Diaz incident, claiming there was a cover-up and claiming Sky had been pressured by the PGMOL not to show any further offside replays.
The PGMOL – led by Howard Webb (L) has refuted bizarre claims by Ben Foster (R) that referee heads pressured Sky Sports to cover up their high-profile VAR blunder
VAR ruled out a Liverpool goal at Tottenham despite replays clearly showing Luis Diaz being played onside by Cristian Romero
A mix-up between Darren England (left) and VAR assistant Dan Cook (right) led them to mistakenly think the goal was given by the on-field referee
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“They didn’t show a single replay for the rest of the half and at half-time they didn’t talk about it again – not once – until ten seconds into the second half,” Foster claimed on his podcast The Cycling GK.
‘That tells me Sky is in bed with the VAR and (the PGMOL) people. Because they’ve definitely been on the phone saying, “Don’t bring to our attention that we’ve been joking here, don’t show it, don’t speak to us, don’t do anything.”
“I guarantee this happened. That’s why Sky was directly instructed not to say a word about it.’
However, the PGMOL has refuted Foster’s claims and dismissed his comments as ‘unfounded and completely untrue’, according to the independent.
The report adds that only the Premier League match center passes information to broadcasters and not to PGMOL, with the group having no say over what TV bosses decide to broadcast.
The Reds were furious after the match when Jurgen Klopp called for the match to be replayed
Mail Sport has approached Sky Sports for comment
The PGMOL is led by chief Howard Webb, who will break his silence on the incident next week, as reported by Mail Sport.
He will be speaking at the second edition of Match Officials: Mic’d Up, with the group yet to provide any officials for an interview since the debacle.
It came after VAR audio showed the extent of the huge error in a discussion that dominated football this week.
After play resumes following Diaz’s disallowed goal, the VAR operator can be heard saying: ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, the decision on the pitch was offside, are you happy with this? That’s wrong, Daz (Darren England, VAR)’, to which England sighs and curses and shouts ‘Oh f***’.
Oli Kohout, the VAR Hub Operations Executive, called on the referees to postpone the match and correct their mistake, but England replied bluntly: ‘Can’t do anything’ and the match restarted with a Tottenham free-kick. “I can’t do anything… (bleeped expletives),” England continued.