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Liverpool players Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo and Tottenham's James Maddison await referee Simon Hooper's decision as he checks the VAR screen during the match against Tottenham.

14 of the most hilarious social media reactions to the full VAR audio from Spurs vs Liverpool

Mitchell Wilks •

After yet another weekend of controversy that resulted in Luis Diaz’s goal against Spurs wrongly being disallowed for offside, the PGMOL and the Premier League swallowed their humble pie and released the audio from the VAR hub at the time of the incident.

You don’t need us to tell you just how farcical it is.

Replays showed that Diaz was clearly onside for Liverpool when he fired them ahead after 34 minutes, but Simon Hooper swiftly blew up for offside, prompting a review.

The footage just about sums up the issue with VAR since its introduction in the Premier League back in the 2019-20 season; it’s two minutes or so of complete and utter chaos.

Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Darren England and his colleagues in the hub then reviewed the footage and relayed the famous last words ‘check complete’ back to Hooper, meaning the goal was confirmed as offside. Wrongly.

Hooper then resumed play off the back of the miscommunication, just as everybody in the hub immediately realises the colossal and, ultimately, costly cock-up that has been made.

Dear oh dear. It’s laughable at this point, isn’t it?

Liverpool fans probably won’t feel like laughing – which we completely understand – but if you don’t laugh, you cry.

Serious inquests must be made into the effectiveness of VAR and the quality of officiating in the United Kingdom from elite to grassroots level, of course. But we’re not here for that.

No chance. Instead, we’re here to make the best of a bad situation and celebrate the people of Twitter (or X, if we must) for their brilliant response to the farcical decision and footage behind it.

Almost as soon as the footage went live, we were treated to a serious meme template.

Forget meme template – we’ve got a full meme package.

But while referee Hooper and VAR England spent the evening catching pelters for their parts in the shambles, an unlikely hero emerged from the shadows.

Replay operator, this is your time to shine.

Babyface of the century. Step aside, John Cena.

Liverpool fans might not have gotten justice, but they certainly gained a legend.

Unfortunately, Mr Operator, you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

There was no heroism for England, though. Oh *expletive* indeed, Daz.

Still, at least we all ended the night with a lot more clarity as to what happened, right?

Of course not.

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