Jermaine Pennant believes that the error to disallow Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham Hotspur was the ‘worst decision’ he has ever seen, and proposed a future improvement for VAR technology.
Tottenham went a goal down to a Diaz strike when Liverpool already had 10 men, but the strike was incorrectly disallowed.
A review has since revealed how the error was made, and speaking to Lucky Block, former Liverpool winger Pennant was damning of the mistake.
He said: “Diaz offside was the worst call I've seen, without a shadow of a doubt. Some VAR calls are contentious and it's understandable a mistake could be made, but this one is as clear and obvious as it gets. It makes me question the role of officials. If the referee gets something wrong, the assistants have to be there to double-check and step in.
“Imagine a co-pilot not getting involved in a flight! That's how mind-boggling it is. The referee has assistants, and they have to assist - the clue is in the name!
“It could be as big as the Rodri handball in 21/22, when Liverpool finished behind City by a point, depending on the table. VAR was introduced for incidents like this. I don't know what training the officials go through, but perhaps it needs to be examined. Maybe they need to look at AI! There would be no more human errors, that's for sure.”
Pennant believes AI could be the answer, explaining: “We've had 14 apologies from refs this season and it's barely October! That is crazy! I don't know why they said no to AI, perhaps it was money. Something needs to be done.”