Calacus Monthly Hit & Miss – Liverpool & PGMOL

Every month we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the last few weeks.

HIT – LIVERPOOL FC

As Liverpool prepared to face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League last month, the life of their South American winger Luis Díaz was thrown upside down.

Shocking news emerged from Díaz’s hometown of Barrancas, a small municipality in the north east of Colombia, that armed men had kidnapped Luis’ parents, Luis Manuel Díaz and Cilenis Marulanda, at a local petrol station.

That same night the Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that Marulanda had been rescued by Colombian police, but her husband was still being held hostage by the criminals.

Díaz was understandably excused from playing duties for the Forest fixture and Liverpool released a short statement explaining the situation: “Liverpool Football Club can confirm it is aware of an ongoing situation involving the family of Luis Díaz in Colombia.

“It is our fervent hope that the matter is resolved safely and at the earliest possible opportunity. In the meantime, the player’s welfare will continue to be our immediate priority.”

The wholehearted and compassionate support from the club was reflected by Díaz’s teammates and manager at Anfield the following day.

When Diogo Jota gave Liverpool the lead, he ran to the dugout and was handed a shirt with Díaz’s name and number on the back, which he held aloft for the whole stadium to see. The home crowd responded by singing the name of their Colombian hero.

In his post-match interview with the BBC, Jota said: “It’s unimaginable to think a situation like this could happen. We can just support him and show him we’re with him.”

Jurgen Klopp echoed this message, as well as dedicating the team’s 3-0 victory to Díaz and his family. The Liverpool manager told Sky Sports: "We played in the most difficult circumstance I've ever had. It was a really difficult day, which ended with a good result.

"The best thing we could do for our brother was that we win the game and distract him a little bit maybe, all the rest was super special in the most negative understanding. After more than 1,000 games you would think you have experienced everything, but no.

"But it's not about us, it's about 'Lucho' [Díaz] and his family, and we all pray and hope that everything will be fine. What we can do, we will do, we've done already in the club and the only thing we could do today was fight for their brother - and that's what they did."

In the week that followed, Díaz was again granted a leave of absence as Liverpool travelled to AFC Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup. In the pre-match press conference, assistant manager Pep Lijnders told the media that the club was focused on helping the player as much as possible.

On the same day, Marulanda was leading a candle-lit march in Barrancas to demand the release of her husband with Colombian police offering a $48,000 reward for any information that could lead to his whereabouts.

Reports confirmed that Luis Manuel had been captured by the guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN), a group recognised as terrorists by the Colombian government.

With his father still in the grips of a terror organisation, Díaz showed remarkable resilience to not only return to first-team training, but make himself available for selection ahead of Liverpool’s weekend fixture against Luton Town.

With the Reds a goal down in stoppage time, the 26-year-old winger, who had only been brought on ten minutes earlier, headed home a vital equaliser for his team in what will surely be remembered as one of the most poignant goals in Premier League history.

Like Jota the week before him, Díaz took the opportunity to raise further awareness of his father’s safety by revealing a message on his undershirt that read “Libertad para Papa” (“Freedom for Dad”).

After the game, Díaz then spoke publicly on the matter for the first time via his social media channels: “This goal is for the freedom of my father and all the kidnapped people in my country. Thanks to everyone for your support.”

The statement that accompanied Díaz post read: "Today the footballer is not talking to you, today Lucho Díaz, the son of Luis Manuel Díaz, is talking to you.

"Manuel, my dad, is a tireless worker, our pillar in the family and he is kidnapped. I ask the ELN for the prompt release of my father, and I ask international organizations to intercede for his freedom.

"Every second, every minute our anguish grows. My mother, my brothers and I are desperate, distressed and without words to describe what we are feeling.

"This suffering will only end when we get him back home. I ask you to release him immediately, respecting his integrity and ending this as soon as possible. In the name of love and compassion, we ask that you reconsider your actions and allow us to take him back.

"I thank Colombians and the international community for the support received. Thank you for so many expressions of affection and solidarity in this difficult time that we, and many families, in my country are experiencing."

Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker again made clear the club’s stance on the matter in his post-match interview with Sky Sports and said: “It says a lot about his character, about his inner strength. Not many people can imagine what he is going through now, of course we are supporting him.

“We feel his pain but for him it’s a different level. Football sometimes in dark moments can bring joy to people, can bring joy to somebody who is struggling. And I think football is bringing a slice of joy to Lucho at this time.

“We are together with him for whatever he needs, to take his time. He came, trained, came to the game, scored a fantastic goal for us that was really important. We are with him 100 per cent.”

Club captain Virgil van Dijk further reiterated the group’s support for Díaz in the aftermath of the draw at Luton.

The Dutchman said: “He’s been training with us, knowing that it’s so fresh, what’s going on. He feels like being with us is a safe place, so it helps him.

“We’re here for him. We mentioned it last week, it’s an absolutely horrible situation. Hopefully there will be a solution. We’ll be here for him and everybody should support him. Hopefully it will be sorted as soon as possible.”

There was an unwavering consistency in the messaging from everyone at Liverpool. It was clear that their number one priority was the wellbeing of their colleague and friend, more than even the football itself.

The outpouring of support from the club and the wider football community led to an increase in the global media coverage, which meant there was severe pressure on the ELN to release Luis Manuel.

Thankfully, despite an extra delay enforced by the ELN over the issue of military operations in the area, after successful negotiations between the government and his adductors, Luis Manuel Díaz was released on November 9.

After a tortuous 13-day ordeal, Luis Manuel was finally free and he was greeted by cheering crowds in Barrancas.

A timely international break meant that Díaz returned to Colombia only a few days later to report for national team duty. His first stop, naturally, was to see his family and there were touching scenes as he was reunited with his father.

That weekend Díaz produced a heroic performance against South American giants Brazil, scoring both goals for Colombia in a 2-1 victory.

The magnitude of the occasion seemed to almost get the better of Luis Manuel, who appeared overwhelmed with emotion while celebrating in the stands.

After the win, Díaz said: “Life makes you strong and brave, and I think that’s football, and not just football but life. I’m grateful to my team-mates, to the coaching staff who were always there for me at every moment, and I dedicate the victory to the people who deserved it.”

Díaz and his Liverpool teammate Alisson shared a warm embrace at the end of the South American World Cup qualifier in Barranquilla, and the Colombian was quick to highlight the importance of the support he received from the Brazilian.

Díaz said: “He [Alisson] accompanied me in the last 15 days, he is a great human being and he helped me get through this difficult moment.”

In a further gesture of goodwill, Liverpool then flew Luis Manuel and the entire wider Díaz family over to the United Kingdom so that they could all spend Christmas together after their traumatic experience.

As Liverpool took on Manchester City in their return Premier League match after the international break, Luis Manuel was spotted in the away end cheering on his son’s team as they drew 1-1.

This extension of the pastoral care for Díaz, going above and beyond to make sure that the whole family is well looked after even when Luis Manuel had been safely recovered, is a shining example of how any well-run sporting organisation should look after their staff.

Throughout this incredibly difficult period, Liverpool displayed a clarity and consistency in their approach to the matter, always putting the emotional needs of their player before anything else, which should be applauded.

The situation was perhaps best summarised by Klopp, who said: "I always know that there are more important things than football, I never forget that. It's just that during the games, from time to time, you forget that, but the priority is always clear.”

We all love sport and want our teams to succeed, but, as Liverpool have shown, there is nothing more important than humanity.
MISS – PGMOL

It has often been said that being the manager of England is an impossible job.

Perhaps even more difficult, though, is the challenge of being a referee. 

In the highly-charged world of football, from grassroots with young children all the way up to national and international competition, referees are caught in the crossfire of every contentious decision from players, coaches, fans and pundits. 

There have been debates about certain high-profile decisions going back to the start of the professional era, the sense on injustice living on for generations.

It’s often difficult for fanatical supporters to accept human error when stakes can be so high. One wrong decision can shatter a career or a season, result in a trophy lost or a team relegated with all the financial ramifications that that can provoke.

While football has been slow to adapt technology at the same rate as some other sports, the introduction of Video Assistant Referees, VAR, in time for the start of the 2019-2020 Premier League season seemed to be a step in the right direction.

At last, fans thought, an end to the controversies and dismay caused by officiating errors, with teams getting what they deserve more often than not.

Mike Riley, then head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the organisation which oversees referees, explained ahead of the rollout that the vision for VAR was to rectify clear and obvious errors, with decisions taking, on average, no more than 30 seconds, so as not to affect the flow of the game too adversely.

Many fans approached the new technology with a mixture of curiosity and concern, but the fact that a handful of correct on-field decisions were reversed in the first few months did nothing to engender confidence.

What has happened since has threatened the spectacle of the Premier League, the greatest football league on Earth – and even the integrity of the competition.

It all looked so different at the turn of the century.

In 2001, England became the first country in the world to embrace professional football referees across its top division, with 24 in the Select Group at the newly-formed PGMOL.

Fitness and diet became integral in a referee’s everyday life in the same way it has been for elite players – but conversely, the standard of officiating has dropped just as their athletic prowess has improved.

After only a few months of the technology being introduced, Riley admitted that there were problems that needed to be addressed.

He said at the time: “There are significant things we can do to improve it. We can get better consistency in decision-making, we can improve the timings and if we achieve those – which we will over time – then what we’ll end up with is better quality decision-making that minimises the impact on the game.”.

It’s no surprise, then, that a YouGov survey carried out in 2020 found that two-thirds of fans in England believed that VAR had made the game less enjoyable, and just 8% wanted to keep VAR operating as it was.

Riley was replaced by Howard Webb, a referee of some repute having officiated at the Champions League and World Cup finals in 2010, but with the laws of the game amended each season and more scrutiny through broadcasting, analysis and social media, his task has been far from straightforward.

The issue is, five years later, we still have the same problems, and nothing seems to have improved, and the more mistakes occur, the more questions are asked about the competence and integrity of referees.

The inconsistencies that referees and VAR exhibits on a weekly basis suggest that there is a long way to go – and the spectacle of the game has been ruined by slow decision-making and obvious errors that the technology was supposed to eradicate.

Elite referees rotate between on-pitch officiating and being a VAR at Stockley Park, which requires technological skills not always aligned to those learned on the field of play.

Former referee Mike Dean, never one to shirk the limelight, has hardly dampened the concerns that referees apply the law evenly and fairly, when he admitted that he did not send the referee to the screen when Cristian Romero clearly pulled Marc Cucurella’s hair at the end of a 2-2 draw between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur in August 2022.

He explained: “I said to Anthony (Taylor) afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game’. I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.”

We have had instances of VAR drawing offside lines in the wrong place and even forgetting to place the lines altogether.

Webb later called a crisis meeting at Stockley Park and Lee Mason, responsible for one of these errors, then left the Select Group by mutual consent.

This season, the controversies have continued, with Wolverhampton Wanderers the victims of four erroneous decisions which led manager Gary O’Neil to admit that he has given up on referees.

After a 3-2 defeat to Fulham at the end of November, O’Neil ran out of patience and said: “Maybe tonight has finally turned me against VAR. The impact that you are having on my reputation, and the club and people's livelihoods is massive. We should be able to talk about the game and not decisions, but unfortunately we can't.”

Webb now participates in ‘Mic’d Up’ which discusses refereeing decisions using match footage and previously unreleased audio.

"We made a commitment to be more transparent," said Webb on Sky’s Monday Night Football. "We know and recognise that people want more information about refereeing processes, particularly with the advent of VAR.

"We want to show spectators what goes into making the decisions on the field and then how the VAR works as well. We've got a professional group of officials working hard to have a positive impact on the game."

On the face of it, this is a good move, improving the transparency of the PGMOL and the thinking that leads to certain decisions.

But there are two major problems with the concept. First of all, former Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen is not a journalist, and so does not press Webb with the challenging questions an experienced journalist should ask.

That gives the impression that Webb is afforded the easiest of rides from doing the show, so it feels more like propaganda than a genuine dissection of key decisions.

The show is also only on monthly, meaning that heat-of-the-moment decisions from the previous weekends may not get covered in the 30-minute show.

The controversy reached boiling point when Luis Diaz of Liverpool was denied a goal for offside against Tottenham Hotspur in September this year, with the Londoners going on to win the game in the dying seconds.

To their credit, the PGMOL issued a statement soon after the game and said: “PGMOL acknowledges a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool.

“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention. However, the VAR failed to intervene.

“PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”

Liverpool questioned why the situation had been allowed to occur and a club statement read: “We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under, but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.

“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.

“That such failings have already been categorised as 'significant human error' is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency. This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs, with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again. In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”

Perhaps the PGMOL thought they were doing the right thing by releasing audio of the discussion between their officials which led to the error but all it did was underline the chaos, and some would argue the ineptitude, of the VAR process and personnel.

Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett said: “I was staggered by the level of communication on show in the short clip released on Tuesday night… There was no joined-up thinking, clarity of thought, or any sort of collaborative approach. It appeared people were passing the buck until it all dawned on them what happened, and how they could not — or did not want to — rectify it.”

The Premier League announced an evaluation of VAR, amid scathing criticism in the fallout of what happened at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and a spokesperson said: “It is clear that there were not only human errors but systemic weaknesses in the VAR process. We accept PGMOL’s immediate recommendations to ensure that such failures are not repeated in the future.

“However, a wider review to seek consistently higher standards of VAR performance will be conducted by the Premier League and PGMOL, supported by other stakeholders, and where necessary further recommended actions will be brought forward and implemented.”

As a consequence, a new protocol aimed at enhancing the clarity of communication between the referee and the VAR team in relation to on-field decisions has been arranged, underlining that speed should never be more of a consideration than accuracy.

It does not help the PGMOL’s reputation that some of its referees have travelled to officiate games in the Middle East.

In April, Michael Oliver took charge of a Saudi Pro League game between Al Nassr and Al Hilal while the VAR officials Darren England and Dan Cook, who were on duty in that Tottenham v Liverpool match, had been officiating in the UAE Pro League game between Al Ain and Sharjah a few days earlier.

Given that there are Premier League clubs with significant ownership groups and interests in the Middle East, at the very least the decision to allow referees to accept these well-compensated freelance opportunities can only give rise to suspicion and conspiracy.

Newcastle, for instance, have strong connections to Saudi, and when their high-flying team faced Arsenal recently, manager Mikel Arteta was understandably furious when a number of VAR reviews failed to rule out Anthony Gordon’s goal which ended the Gunners’ unbeaten run in dramatic circumstances.

Arteta, who usually keeps his calm in post-match interviews, did not hide his anger over “embarrassing” decisions and the club issued a statement which urged improvement in officiating: “Arsenal Football Club wholeheartedly supports Mikel Arteta’s post-match comments after yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors on Saturday evening.

“The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches and supporters, all of whom deserve better. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations and apologies.

“We support the ongoing efforts of Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb and would welcome working together to achieve the world-class officiating standards our league demands.”

In the later ‘Mic’d Up’ which addressed the game, Webb backed the referees despite three possible reasons to chalk it off. He said: “The ball then comes over and Joelinton challenges Gabriel. Could be a foul, might be a foul, the VAR decides that the evidence from the footage isn’t clear enough to warrant and intervene with a recommendation for a review for a clear error. The VAR went through that diligently and identified no clear evidence to intervene to overturn the goal. The process actually was correct.”

It was another unconvincing explanation of the decision, which made little sense when a week later Bukayo Saka was punished for a far more delicate coming together with Burnley’s Luca Koleosho while Erling Haaland won a penalty for an equally innocuous tussle with Marc Cucurella.

The lack of consistency across the Premier League is startling and understandably dominates discourse after a weekend of games.

When hosts Tottenham Hotspur lost to Chelsea in early November, the home side had two players rightly sent off, while there were five disallowed goals, 11 significant VAR checks, 21 minutes of added time in all and six yellow cards.

The game may have been a spectacle on some levels, but it was also a frustrating experience for fans used to the traditional 90 minutes of action with the ball in play for just under 48 minutes.

After so much controversy, is it any wonder that the League Managers Association (LMA) is lobbying for major officiating changes.

LMA Chief Executive Richard Bevan said: “The managers strongly feel that a VAR specialist should be considered a member of the close team of officials (Referee, 4th Official, Assistant Referees and VAR specialist) that become one unit for every game they are officiating together.

“The use of officiating teams, with referees and assistant referees regularly working together, has already proven beneficial and produced positive results.

“The managers are also calling for a review (and simplification) of the interpretation of the term "clear and obvious" in VAR decision-making, as this is a cause of much confusion at present.”

Hackett described the current standard of refereeing as “woeful both in the middle [of the pitch] and VAR room at Stockley Park.” In response to one user on X, Hackett said there is currently “incompetence and a lack of leadership” at the PGMOL.

Clearly something has to change, and perhaps football needs to look at other sports.

Fans and coaches may be more accepting of controversial decisions if referees were more relatable and the transparency seen already in rugby and cricket was in some way replicated.

Both those sports have greater communication around decision-making and there is a tolerance for imperfections which take into account the fact that not every decision can be absolute.

Currently VAR tries to hide the process from its audience, but IFAB secretary Lukas Brud recently ruled out broadcasting refereeing deliberations.

“I categorically say no, they shouldn't [be played out live,]'' he said. “I was allowed to observe and see communication between match officials during a review and it is quite a chaotic situation, not in a negative sense but there's many people talking at the same time and I think it would be counterproductive for anyone to listen to all those voices talking to each other.

“Then you have the VAR and the assistant VAR, the replay operators, the referee and maybe even the assistant referees and fourth official, so all of a sudden it becomes quite a chaotic experience.

“We have given the green light to test the announcement of decisions to bring a little more transparency to decision-making, but we are not prepared at this point to open up communication live to the audience."

Brud perhaps gave too much away and the “chaotic experience” is part of the problem football faces.

The introduction of semi-automated offside technology was introduced at the 2022 World Cup and its deployment in the Champions League, Serie A and La Liga, but is not yet adopted in the English top flight, which may also have helped with some decisions such as that of the disallowed Diaz goal.

The fact that the PGMOL has had to make so many apologies to clubs about VAR and its officiating in general says it all about the problems the organisations still needs to address.

There is so much for the PGMOL to improve, but while VAR continues in its current form, confidence in referees and the game in general is being undermined with referees changing their minds, managers angrier than ever and clubs  calling out conspiracy.

A monthly 30-minute TV show isn’t going to change hearts and minds anytime soon.