Diogo Jota‘s wife Rute Cardoso has hit out at Premier League officials for ‘rigging’ Saturday’s game between Liverpool and Tottenham.
Cardoso was furious at referee Simon Hooper and the PGMOL for sending Jota off for two yellow cards within the space of two minutes against Spurs, who won a controversial encounter 2-1 thanks to Joel Matip’s own goal deep into stoppage time.
She was also irritated by the red card shown to Curtis Jones and the fact Liverpool were denied an obvious goal after Luis Diaz was adjudged to be offside.
Cardoso took to social media to call out Hooper and the PGMOL for their decision-making on Saturday, which prompted an unprecedented statement from Liverpool and led to both VAR officials being axed from upcoming matches.
She shared a video of Jota’s first foul on Destiny Udogie with a clown emoji and the PGMOL’s statement with the words ‘rigged game’ crossed out.
Diogo Jota’s wife Rute Cardoso has hit out at Premier League officials for ‘rigging’ Saturday night’s game between Liverpool and Tottenham
She shared a video of Jota’s foul on Destiny Udogie with a clown emoji (left) and the PGMOL’s statement with the words ‘rigged game’ crossed out (right)
Jota, introduced as a half-time substitute by Jurgen Klopp, was shown his first yellow card in the 68th minute of the game after tripping Udogie up from behind as he looked to stop Spurs from countering.
However, replays appear to show Udogie in fact tripped himself up after feeling the pressure from the Portuguese forward – something Cardoso highlighted.
Things then went from bad to worse for Jota barely two minutes later when he was shown a second booking.
The 26-year-old was dispossessed by Udogie on the right-hand-side and tried to win it back by dangling his leg out.
But the Liverpool star clipped the Italian, prompting Hooper to reach for his pocket to pull out a second yellow card.
Liverpool were also denied a clear goal after Diaz was adjudged to be offside, which the PGMOL later admitted was wrong.
A statement from the PGMOL said: ‘PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred. PGMOL will conduct a full review.
‘The goal by Luiz 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.’
Jota was shown his first yellow card in the 68th minute of the game after tripping Udogie up from behind as he looked to stop Spurs from countering
Things went from bad to worse for Jota in the 69 minute of the game when he was shown a second yellow card and subsequent red card
Liverpool were denied an obvious goal after Luis Diaz was adjudged to be offside
Liverpool then made an unprecedented moved of releasing an official statement about the incident.
The club said on Sunday: ‘Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined.
‘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.’
VAR ruled out a Liverpool goal against Tottenham, despite replays clearing showing Luis Diaz was being played onside by Cristian Romero
PGMOL have confirmed that VAR official Darren England (pictured) and VAR assistant Dan Cook (not pictured) will step down from their roles for upcoming fixtures
The PGMOL had earlier confirmed the two VAR officials involved in the huge error not to give Diaz’s goal, Darren England and Dan Cook, had been dropped from upcoming Premier League matches.
It later emerged that the two demoted officials were in the United Arab Emirates two days before their colossal cock-up, putting the PGMOL under further scrutiny.
England and Cook officiated a UAE Pro League match between Sharjah and Al Ain on Thursday, kicking off at 8pm local time. They completed their 16-hour round trip by flying back to London on Friday ahead of Tottenham versus Liverpool on Saturday.
That has raised eyebrows among Premier League insiders who feel it was hardly the greatest preparation before the biggest match of the weekend, citing concerns over workload and fatigue.
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