In a first for professional English football, the referee directly announced a VAR decision over the stadium loudspeaker during Liverpool's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final on January 8th.
In the 76th minute, Pedro Porro played a through ball to Dominic Solanke, who raced clear and slotted past Alisson. The assistant referee did not raise his flag, and Solanke began celebrating with his teammates.
However, VAR intervened, determining that the English forward was marginally offside and disallowing Tottenham's opening goal. Referee Stuart Attwell himself announced the decision publicly. "After review, Solanke was in an offside position," he stated.
This marks the first instance of a referee announcing a VAR decision live to the stadium audience in a professional English match, a move that was met with positive reactions from fans.
"Much better having the referee announce the VAR decision", one social media user commented.
Referee Attwell communicated the VAR's verdict via the stadium's public address system.
Numerous other supporters even called for this change to be implemented in Premier League matches as well.
However, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou was less enthusiastic about the alteration. "I'm actually amazed at how readily in this country people accept change in football", he said after the match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. "Things have changed more since VAR than in the 50 years I've been involved in football. But it's what people want."
VAR, which stands for Video Assistant Referees, primarily assists on-field referees in making decisions by directly analyzing video footage of incidents, free-kicks, and goals. The technology has been utilized in the Premier League since the 2018-2019 season.
Following the disallowed goal due to offside, Solanke provided the assist for Lucas Bergvall's contentious goal, securing a 1-0 victory for Tottenham against Liverpool.
During the game, Rodrigo Bentancur suffered a serious injury after an aerial challenge in the sixth minute and fell to the ground. Medical staff immediately attended to him on the pitch before he was stretchered off. He gave a thumbs-up to the Tottenham coaching staff to reassure them, and received applause from the fans as he left the field. The London club also announced that Bentancur was "conscious, talking, and will go to hospital for further checks".
