As the fallout from Liverpool’s wrongly disallowed goal continues, the question is what will happen in light of the incident.
With Liverpool down to ten men and goalless, Luis Diaz thought he had given the Reds the lead against Tottenham on Saturday.
However, the goal was ruled out for offside by both field officials and VAR, despite replays clearly showing the Colombian was in an offside position.
After the match, PGMOL apologized to the club, saying human error led to the wrong outcome. But Liverpool are not happy and believe the decision undermines sporting integrity, leading to possible speculation that the match could be replayed.
A replay is rare in football, but here are seven examples of a match or incident being replayed.
Luis Diaz believes he has given Liverpool the lead against Tottenham on Saturday
The goal was disallowed by VAR, but later turned out to be an error because the goal was offside
Arsenal vs Sheffield UnitedFebruary 1999
The most famous match from the modern era to be replayed is this FA Cup fifth round tie at Highbury in 1999.
First Division Sheffield United were the visitors to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, and with the match tied at 1-1 thanks to goals from Patrick Vieira for the hosts and Marcelo’s equalizer for the Blades, the match took a chaotic turn.
United goalkeeper Alan Kelly kicked the ball out for a throw-in so injured teammate Lee Morris could receive treatment. The Blades were then under the impression that Arsenal would hand the ball back to them after the restart.
Sheffield United share their grievances over Arsenal players celebrating after a controversial goal in the 1999 cup match
That is exactly what Ray Parlor intended but did not negotiate for debutant Nwankwo Kanu. The Nigerian intercepted the pass back to the Blades, laying the ball off to Marc Overmars, who then fired the ball into the net to make it 2-1.
The goal caused an uproar among the away side, with boss Steve Bruce ordering his players to leave the field in protest.
The match was able to be completed as the Gunners went ahead, but the injustice raged on and in the aftermath Wenger offered United a rematch – which both teams agreed to.
Arsenal would win the repeat match, thanks to a goal ironically from Overmars and a winner from Dennis Bergkamp.
Leeds vs Aston Villa, April 2019
There was never a dull moment during Marcelo Bielsa’s performance in Leeds and this was no exception in one of the most bizarre moments of the Championship.
After Jonathan Kodjia went down injured for Aston Villa, the Villa players stopped playing as Leeds’ Tyler Roberts slowed down, indicating his team was about to down tools too.
Except Roberts then ran through the defense and squared the ball to Mateusz Klich, who curled the ball into the net, causing a huge commotion and a fight on the pitch.
Leeds and Aston Villa players clash after an unfair goal from the home side following a Villa injury
Albert Adomah was allowed to score the equalizer, even though Pontus Jansson was not happy with the call
The actions did not go down well with Bielsa, who then instructed his team to let Villa score from the kick-off to right the wrong. Unfortunately, defender Pontus Jansson disagreed and was the only Leeds player to challenge Albert Adomah as he put the ball in the net to make it 1-1.
As the rest of his team stood watching Adomah restore sporting integrity, Jansson tried to stop the goal and then felt the wrath of his teammates for going against the manager’s wishes.
Rangers vs Partick Thistle, February 2023
In Scotland, Rangers were also the pantomime villains after Malik Tillman controversially scored against Partick Thistle last season.
With the score tied at 1-1, Rangers kicked the ball out so Tillman could receive treatment. However, as Partick attempted to play the ball back to Rangers, skipper Kevin Holt missed control of the ball.
Tillman saw this as an opportunity to strike and promptly collected the ball from the Partick player to put Rangers ahead, without giving the away side the chance to play the ball back to their hosts.
Partick Thistle players challenge Malik Tillman after his controversial goal last season
Watch scenes of a brawl between 20 men as the sides argue over the incident, before Gers boss Michael Beale ordered his team to let Partick score from kick-off.
Scott Tiffoney then waltzed through the Rangers half to level the game, even dodging a challenge from Allan McGregor, who didn’t quite seem to agree with his manager’s orders.
Rangers went on to win the match 3–2 thanks to a late goal from Jamie Sands.
Brixham vs Bridgewater United, August 2021
The match between Brixham and Bridgwater in this additional qualifying round of the FA Cup had to be replayed due to an error in the referee’s disciplinary laws.
After beating Brixham of the South West Peninsula League Premier Division East, Bridgwater of the Western League Premier Division complained about the referee sending Jack Taylor to the sin bin instead of sending him off.
Sin bins have been used at grassroots level since 2019 but do not apply in the FA Cup and therefore the error led to the match between the two non-league teams having to be replayed.
Exwick Villa vs Bow AAC, November 2019
More non-competitive issues arose in this match involving Devon & Exeter League Division One clubs Exwick Villa and Bow AAC.
With the score standing at 0–0 after 90 minutes in the third round of the Devon Senior Cup, the match was allowed to go into extra time and saw Bow score twice to seemingly progress to the next round.
However, competition rules state that matches do not allow extra time and if the match is tied after 90 minutes, the matches must go straight to a penalty shoot-out.
This meant that Bow’s extra time gains counted for nothing as the match had to be replayed and it resulted in a 4–3 win for Exwick Villa.
Besiktas vs Genclerbirligi, February 2015
In Turkey, a row over the number of times a referee blew his whistle led to a match between Besiktas and Genclerbirlgi being replayed.
Referee Kuddusi Muftuoglu admitted he had made a mistake on a free kick that led to the equalizer for the visitors, ending the match at 1–1.
FIFA referee Muftuoglu confirmed in his report that he blew his whistle three times: once for taking the set piece, a second time for fouling the wall and a third time to allow the goal. However, after the second whistle the free kick should have been retaken and therefore a mistake was made which led to the goal.
The error led to the Turkish FA ordering the match to be replayed.
Edgware Town vs Harefield United, September 2006
Another confusion in the rules saw Edgware Town and Harefield United also have to repeat their match against each other – this time due to a disallowed penalty.
The referee ruled out an Edgware penalty for foul rather than ordering a retake, and wrongly awarded an indirect free-kick to Harefield, who went on to win the match 1–0.
However, following the error, the FA and the Spartan South Midlands League ordered the match to be replayed.
Who got away with it…
However, not all major mistakes are met with calls for repetition, and a few have escaped over the years.
In 2000, First Division Tranmere, as part of their FA Cup heroics, eliminated Premier League Sunderland, but their 1–0 win caused some controversy.
Clint Hill was sent off in stoppage time for Tranmere, but Rovers managed to appoint a replacement for the sent-off player without the referees noticing.
The match went on for several minutes before it was noticed, leading to a fiery altercation between the two benches.
More recently, Sheffield United were the unfortunate victims of a technological failure during their 2020 Premier League meeting with Aston Villa.
Oliver Norwood’s free-kick was cleared over the line by Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, but the goal-line decision system failed to warn referee Michael Oliver that the ball had crossed the line and the ball was disallowed.
Sheffield United believe they only scored because the goal-line decision system failed them
