 Alright, so football is still the topic on the Sportsmax zone. Another weekend, another very missed half in the English Premier League. The weekend standout mouth saw two unbeaten teams, Tottenham and Liverpool dual at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Tottenham climbed to second with a 2-1 victory but it was as controversial as they come. Liverpool ended the game with nine men following red cards to Curtis Jones and Diego Jota and had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside. And to compound matters, it was a Joel Machipp 97th minute own goal which granted Spurs the win. As expected, Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp had some fiery words for the referees. Well, how can the ref explain the situation here? So, the linesman thought obviously it's worth watching, looking again and that's why he raised the flag. In a good old times, a linesman should have seen that as well, that this is an offside because we had these situations quite frequently and when you see it back it's pretty clear. But again, nobody did it on purpose so I cannot, whatever I say here, it just creates headlines but doesn't help the situation at all so I'm not in that mood. Professional game match officials limited, issued an apology to Liverpool stating that Luiz Diaz's goal was onside and there was a significant human error which led to it not being given. Liverpool issued this statement following the apology. 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 feelings 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. Well joining us to advance this discussion is football analyst, former Trinidad and Tobago International, Brent Sancho. Good afternoon Brent, how are you? Good, Mariah, and yourself? I'm doing okay, unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I'm not one of the teams that are dealing with this situation but really, really unfortunate Brent for Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp. I can see the frustration on his face and rightfully so. Listen, when VAR foods came out, I remember making a statement that look, you're going to have mistakes, despite the fact that it was brought in and it's computerised, it's supposed to be technology, at the end of the day, Mariah, the human being aspect is still very much involved in this. So there will be mistakes, people will make mistakes. And so football fans, pundits, coaches, players, after understanding that at the end of the day, there will be mistakes when it comes to VAR. Yes, this was probably one of the bigger mistakes, but it comes with the territory. We've had a host of mistakes before, we have England walking away with a wool cup because of a mistake. So my point is, they're trying to close the gap in errors, but of course with human involvement in it, there's always going to be challenges and people make mistakes. Let's start with that red card for Curtis Jones, Brent. It started off as a yellow, then they reviewed the play and he was eventually awarded a red card having to leave his steam. In your assessment and opinion, was it deserving of a red card? I think it's all done. Again, I go back to the human element of it and yes, I'll give my personal view on it, but remember when you're looking at a free screen and frames, it's a lot different from looking at it at real time and I think that really is this issue with VAR and of course the usage of VAR, because you make a decision on the field and of course that decision is dealt with the speed of the game, it's dealt with all that's occurred around it and of course the intent as well around that situation. So when you freeze it, you can get a completely different perspective from it and I think that really is the challenge with all of this because someone that sits in a box in the boot looking at things from a free screen and a referee that's in the field and looking at it at live peace and real peace, intentions could be different, the feel of the game is different and I can tell you as a player, a former player, being on a pitch, being involved in a football game and being off the pitch and watching a football game obviously is two different things because there are a lot of different things that happen on a pitch that you can never get the feel for when you're off the pitch and I think that is where the challenge is, they're trying to make on the field decisions with an instrument off the field. As I said, yes I understand why we are doing it because we want to close the gap as it relates to errors but I think it's a difficult one and yes I do think on the review it should have been a record. Yeah and Brent, I want to go back to the offside issue or onside issue because this is a var error like we've never seen before, var mistakenly believed that the on-field decision had been to award the goal when it was actually the opposite and that is where the error happened. There has been a view that when the var decision is made just to say check complete, given what we saw happen over the weekend, that probably needs to be bolstered by something like check complete goal, check complete no goal because maybe that additional information was entered in the graphic or the decision coming from var, the problem would not have stayed, it would have been corrected. I think Lance when you talk about and I'm happy you touched on that point because at the end of the day yes there are things within the communication, within of course the decision making that could be cleaned up and let's be frank, when this first started we were educated on hand positioning which was natural, unnatural and I'm quite sure if we gave a diagram to a referee or player and asked them to draw 10 unnatural hand positions it would be probably very comical. The point I'm making is at the end of the day as var has progressed they have tried their best to obviously clean things up. What I've noticed since Howard Webber have come on board and lead in the charge is trying to be a little bit more of course transparent in their decision making, of course issue in the statement that they did but to the point exactly what you made yes I do feel that those sorts of little things I would like to see improved within var but not necessarily the holistic changes of getting rid of var and all of the different statements that you hear coming out of the UK as it relates to it because as I said yes it was a big mistake I'm very sure there's going to be another big mistake at some point in the future but it doesn't mean that you rip up var because of these mistakes because at the end of the day there's a human element involved. And Brent have you heard anything about possible fatigue being a part of the reason why this one slipped the var team because there were reports that that var team or that panel had traveled to the United Arab Emirates or some distant venue within 48 hours of doing the match and with flying time and so on they may have been a little tired. Yeah I think it could be a possibility obviously and it must be stated that this is not the first time that referees or officials have been given permission to do midweek games in other countries or other territories so this is not thing abnormal and of course both officials will give them permission to do such in the modern day that we have I know players fly first glass and planes and have revolved tremendously that the impact of long distances of travel of course is mitigated but yes there could be a possibility of does it mean that you stop officials from going over I don't think so because again each human is different so I can't say for sure whether or not it had an impact because as I said we've had many cases of officials going overseas to do games and they've done quite a good job in coming back so maybe for these two individuals they may have had the challenges so I think maybe a case by case situation but I don't see an issue in it as it relates to that particular situation. Yeah Brent Sancho I must admit I was gutted when the goal was not awarded to Luis Diaz not because I'm a Liverpool fan because clearly I'm not I'm a Manchester United fan but I play fantasy Premier League and I just brought Luis Diaz into my team less than 24 hours before I had decided against bringing in Bowen and Suchek who both scored by the way and so it would have been great if Luis Diaz had scored as well but thanks to VAR that was not the case so I was quite gutted having said that Brent and this may sound ridiculous but given the circumstances is there anyway and I know there's no precedent for it as well but is there any way that the goal could have been awarded retroactively or was that been doing more harm than good? Yeah I think that would be doing a lot more harm I don't know if you junk your memories there was an instance in a cup game where Arson Wenger the then Arsenal manager replayed a game many a couple moons ago for a similar sort of bad officiating call but like anything in sports there are mistakes as I said and I think athletes and managers will be disappointed at first you know I have to go back to the press conferences to both club but both managers for that they didn't really stress on of course what transpired and the game they both took it down as a mistake I think what really bothered me with everything Ricardo is a statement at Liverpool mean I think it was reckless and I think it certainly was irresponsible because what are you going to escalate it to? You can't do anything about it it is a result it's finished it's done it's dusted move on mistakes happen over the course of a season that's how it happens you may have some situations and I'm sure I've seen many situations a couple situations where Liverpool may have benefited from poor decision making but to go along that route that they to send a letter and ask for audio I think it's ridiculous and as I said very very irresponsible from Liverpool. Is it really ridiculous though Brent given the magnitude of the mistake I mean if you were in a position like that you would want to know and be given all the possible evidence of what exactly happened and what was the thinking in that room from the panel given responsibility to officiate the game from a more perspective. But my point is even if you've got all that information what are you going to do with it they can't change what it is but it depends on what the information brings to the table it depends on what you hear it depends on where the evidence leads. But Ricardo one thing I know is this game will never be played so if I'm Liverpool even if I get all the information and all says that it was there was a human error in the gravest of situations yes it's knowledge to me but it doesn't help the fact that I still lost three points and I think at the end of the day that is the crux of the matter. The reason why I'm so upset with this statement because it now escalates the situation with bar it doesn't need escalating it needs for us to keep working with it because at the end of the day as I said from when this foot when bar first came out you will have mistakes you will have situations where people make mistakes. So I don't understand what Liverpool is trying to achieve other than to try and expose bar and continue this debate to going on yes I feel agreed for Liverpool I think they were cheated however it would never change the result I think what they should be trying to do is listening to ways of how this these little things can be improved I don't think here in the audio or audio being spoken to because I took from where I said I expect another mistake in bar to happen maybe not this season maybe the next because that's just the situation and the type of scenario that we have with this particular piece of device as I said because there's a human element involved you will always have room for error. Yeah I was just about to say you know I hear what he's saying but I have to disagree because one hearing the audio Brent will create some peace of mind for the Liverpool coach and the Liverpool players because for me it's also about you know they're feeling very aggrieved for what happened so if that's what it takes Brent then so be it and another thing is a vow we have to always remember vow was brought in to minimize and eliminate errors so when things like this happen of course Brent they're going to be very very upset for me hearing the audio as you said doesn't give them three points it doesn't change the results but you know what it brings light to the situation it ensures that those humans you know involved in the VOD decision decision making process that they are a bit more aware and recognized that making bad decisions can have serious consequences in the competition and you want to keep the competition as serious as possible because it's a competitive one yeah I don't I'm not disputing that point because at the end of the day as far as I'm concerned if I was a player in that locker room the only thing I would want is respite is three points let's let's not let's because if you look at things in context Liverpool possibly will be challenging Man City and Lord Behold three points might be the difference between them and women elite so whether I hear audio song apology dinner date from the referees I couldn't care less all I would be concerned about is getting three points because but my the point I'm really trying to have a home here is that there is going to continue to be mistakes I don't care what Howard Webb says or what any of those official said once there's a referee once there's a human element involved in this aspect of the game they will make mistakes you made the correct point that the vow was set up to minimize mistake it cannot eliminate mistakes because there will be mistakes if you've seen far coming to play live without it yeah the only issue here though Brent that this one really as I said before is of our era like we've never seen before and this to me looks completely unforgivable because what is what is a fact is that at the moment that bar recognized that the goal wasn't given it they should have been able to raise an alarm to get the right decision made and somehow they just sat there and the referee didn't even realize until half time that a grave error had been made so there is just something unforgivable and I'm not this forgivable about this error but yeah I'm not this fit and not I agree but that that's probably for future situations now we can learn this and put future of course applications to this was that as it relates right now there's no three points coming back to Liverpool and it's no repercussions is no replay game that does you know what Brent Sancho I don't often disagree with you this is one of the very few times I think I am going to disagree with you but I'm with Lance and Mariah here that the decision was so egregious that you have to think that from a Liverpool standpoint you want the peace of mind of knowing for sure that this was an arrow a human arrow as pointed out as opposed to something else and you cannot blame Liverpool if at the moment they are somewhere in a boardroom thinking was it really a human error or was it something else yeah and you have to in my opinion because let me ask the question if if this happened the reverse were wrong four months down the road with Liverpool right the same letter it wouldn't be Liverpool's responsibility to write the same letter it would be the responsibility of the team who felt wronged by the decision to write that letter no the point the point I'm trying to make is at the end of the day you don't get back I hear what you say about being aggrieved and of course trying to find ways to find some sort of comfort in it but at the end of the day three points of what matters because as I said if this comes down to the last game of the season and Liverpool loses because of the three points they would tell you keep your keep all your audio visuals and all these different things and give me back the three points but I do know from sitting here yeah they're never gonna get that game we played it's lost Brett they're not gonna get the three points I think we can agree there but they can still get peace of mind out of this situation or at least the truth depending on how they are viewing the situation at this stage and I think you have to at least give them that the peace of mind of knowing that it was a genuine mistake because in situations like this Brent Lance and Mariah you can accept if it is a genuine mistake and if the evidence points to a genuine mistake but if it points to something else then that's a lot tougher to accept and move along without having an escalated conversation. And Brent it's so unfortunate we can't even speak about Tottenham's win because we don't have enough time to do that and that's even more unfortunate because Tottenham has had a good season now if they go on to win you know what everybody's gonna say because they cheated Liverpool Va was on their team unfortunate but no my point is this guys I know we have to wrap up soon we have had numerous mistakes in Va Ivan Tony we've had so many and so many clubs could be agreed yes this is the most grave of all of it but we've had bad situations as well but I have not seen anyone you know got the three points or that sort of level of and that's really my point because I just know from what I said as a player coming going home after the game I would prefer three points all day long because I don't think and this is maybe where we're probably disconnected yeah I don't think that Va mistakes comes to an end after Liverpool's letter yeah I'm very sure it's gonna be another mistake next week this mistake wasn't 50-50 Brent this mistake wasn't 50-50 and I think that's the major issue with this one yeah but Brent we take your point as if I would say as soon as I said well Brent we take your point and of course it was good chatting with you here on the Sportsmax so we have to run now but we'll talk again I'm sure Va will give us another opportunity to do so break time next week no break time for the good of the game