Key questions answered surrounding the review of how VAR is used in English game

Audio related to the error was released on Tuesday evening.

A review of how VAR is used in the English game is under way after miscommunication between officials led to a Liverpool goal being wrongly disallowed on Saturday.

Here, the PA news agency provides an update on where we are.

What happened?

Liverpool’s Luis Diaz in action — Luis Diaz’s goal was wrongly flagged offside against Tottenham (Adam Davy/PA)

Crucially, VAR Darren England thought the on-field decision had been onside. So although he followed the correct procedure in drawing lines and identifying that Diaz was onside, by telling the on-field officials “check complete” they thought their decision to give offside had been upheld by the check.

Only in the seconds which followed did the VAR operators realise their error, by which time play had restarted. Current protocols do not permit a decision to be revisited once that has happened.

How did Liverpool react?

The club issued a statement on Sunday night saying that sporting integrity had been undermined by the error and that they would “explore the range of options available given the clear need for escalation and resolution”. The club requested – and were sent – the audio of the incident before it was released publicly on Tuesday evening.

What happens next?

The first thing to say is that Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) admitted on Saturday evening that a “significant error” had occurred. As well as standing down England and the assistant VAR Daniel Cook for duties on Sunday and Monday, plus the weekend to come, it has identified some “key learnings” from the incident.

These include the development of a new communications protocol to enhance clarity between referees and VARs. Phil Bentham has been brought into PGMOL from rugby league to improve communication between officials and will no doubt be key to this work.

VARs will now also confirm the outcome of their check with their assistants in the booth, before relaying the final decision to on-field officials.

PGMOL and the Football Association will also review the policy allowing officials to be involved in domestic league matches overseas, after England and Cook were part of a team which oversaw a game in the United Arab Emirates last Thursday, arriving back in the UK on Friday morning.

What has the Premier League said?

Liverpool training — The Premier League said a wider review to seek consistently-higher standards would now take place after the Luis Diaz (centre) incident (Tim Markland/PA)

Besides improving communication between officials, what else could change?

Referee Craig Pawson checks the pitchside VAR monitor — There have been renewed calls to allow the live conversations between VARs and referees to be broadcast (Nick Potts/PA)

While the Premier League has never publicly given its view on live audio, it was part of a World Leagues Forum poll published in June which found 25 out of the 41 leagues surveyed supported its introduction.

Crucially though, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which sets the game’s laws, is understood not to have received any requests so far in the current cycle to trial a live audio system.

What about in-stadium announcements like we had at the Women’s World Cup?

VAR checks for a possible penalty for a handball — There were in-stadium announcements regarding VAR at the Women’s World Cup this summer (Zac Goodwin/PA)

What about semi-automated offside?

General view of a VAR check — The mistake – regarding the Diaz incident – was human error as the existing technology was used to identify that he was onside (Isaac Parkin/PA)