Dermot Gallagher claims Simon Hooper was '"powerless" and would have risked his own integrity had he backtracked to award Luis Diaz's ruled-out goal
Analysing the incident on Sky Sports' weekly Ref Watch programme, former top-flight official Gallagher agreed that the wrong decision had been made though drew the line against Liverpool's own club statement
The letter declared the incorrect call as "unacceptable" with a view that sporting integrity had been undermined.
Gallagher
"I don't understand what that means, to be honest, "Sorry. I seriously don't"
"It was a mistake, referees make mistakes all the time and you were saying it was my 25-year birthday at Sky yesterday, you can find loads of mine that I've made, honestly.
"But it was a mistake. It was a very, very, very bad mistake, there's no doubt about that, but it's a mistake. It is not done deliberately."
Warnock responded
"We're talking human error again and the integrity of the game. Now the integrity of the game is Liverpool have scored a legitimate goal,"
"This is where the rule book goes out the window, and I know everybody will say no, but it should to keep the integrity of the game where common sense comes into it.
"You [Darren England] go 'Simon, we've messed up - not you - we have', because they made Simon Hooper look a fool on TV and to the world who are watching football. 'We've made an error, you need to atone for this error'.
"The way of doing that could simply be walk to the side of the pitch, blow the whistle and say to both managers come in, both captains come in, say 'the VAR have made an error, this is what has happened'. This would have took two or three minutes to do but you get the right decision.
"You say 'it's a goal to Liverpool, what my recommendation is to atone for this error is to do a bounce of the ball and allow Liverpool to score'.
"After the game - even at half time - an announcement is put out by the PGMOL straight away. That would have been around in 10 seconds and everyone would have gone 'amazing, we know where we stand'.
"Whereas they've made it look an absolute mess, and now it is a mess."
Gallagher replied: "I can't deny that, but the trouble is that solution is not possible. It is great in theory but in the laws of the game the referee is powerless to do that.
"He cannot do that, there is no way in the law - no caveat, no nothing that says 'common sense says this'.
"The minute he does that he has then broken the laws of the game and he has then undermined his own integrity and credibility.
"The FA would then charge him for not playing the laws correctly. I know all about integrity, I know all about credibility, but if I was that referee that day, I'd be powerless. I might want to do it."
Warnock concluded that the reality of events is unacceptable.
Gallagher meanwhile did admit that Spurs "got lucky" themselves in regard to Destiny Udogie not receiving a second yellow card for gesturing towards Hooper to issue a booking to Diogo Jota
Gallagher fired a final warning in the direction of all Premier League referees collectively and PGMOL.
He said: "You've got to learn from it. There is no way ever this can happen again. I made mistakes - gave penalties that weren't penalties and didn't give penalties that were - but this can't happen again."
Comments