Pep Guardiola ‘understands completely how upset Liverpool must be’ (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has accused officials of seeking ‘leading roles and Oscars’ amid the VAR scandal involving Liverpool and Luis Diaz.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have requested to hear the VAR audio from Saturday’s draw at Tottenham after Diaz had a legitimate goal wrongly ruled out with PGMOL confirming that a ‘significant human error’ had taken place.
Darren England, who was on VAR duties for the match, is believed to have mistakenly thought that the goal had been awarded by the on-field team so quickly said ‘check complete’ to confirm that Diaz was onside.
But the on-field team took that to mean that their original call of offside had been correct and play restarted, prompting a massive furore afterwards.
Guardiola has now shared his own views on what happened and said: ‘They will have to find a system where the main roles are the players and the game itself.
‘In all the countries, not just here. The referees and the VARs are the leading roles. And the Oscar goes to… they have to take a step back. It’s (about) the players.
‘(In) some games, be more humble and leave the players to do what they have to do, and they will be better. They (referees) will be better.
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‘VAR changes the job of the referee. They don’t take the decisions, now it is the job of the VAR, the important ones.
‘If they make a mistake with the VAR, we have a problem. I understand completely how upset Liverpool must be in that case. It could be another club but the bosses of the referees will decide what we have to do and we will follow them. That is all.
‘I rely on the people (PGMOL) and we have to apply it as best as possible. I would say, I am not a professional at that, I am not involved and I don’t care. I rely on the people. Everyone knows they made a mistake and Liverpool suffered the big consequence of that. In this type of game it is so important.’
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