Luis Diaz's disallowed goal against Tottenham is an example of a “post-truth world”, comedian Omid Djalili has said. 

Saturday’s game between Liverpool and Tottenham ended in 2-1 victory for Spurs after video assistant referees (VARs) failed to intervene after Diaz was incorrectly ruled to be offside. 

Liverpool have called for a review into the controversy and said “sporting integrity” has been undermined by the mistake.  

Speaking to The Hard Shoulder, Mr Djalili said he had not seen the whole match but had been incensed by the highlights. 

“I was immediately like, ‘What the Hell? Why are we not talking about this more?’” he said. 

“I saw that Gary Neville had done some kind of U-turn and gone very corporate saying that, ‘We messed up and that’s enough, we’re sorry.’ 

“Immediately, I thought we’re being sold some kind of lie - something else has gone on.”

Mr Djalili described it as a “very English thing” and said people need to get better at owning up and making amends when they make a “terrible mistake”. 

He began to tweet about the incident and soon found there were plenty of other people out there on the platform who shared his frustration. 

Here’s the audio. And it’s unbelievable. “Can’t do anything” is said by VAR repeatedly only a few seconds after the restart when “delay the game” is said by the replay operator 10 times. So clear some ridiculous rule made up by VAR that you can’t go back and fix a mistake within… https://t.co/ixkmEzRXZT

— Omid Djalili (@omid9) October 3, 2023

“What is really rankling me is that in the rules, there was a misunderstanding but they carried on playing as if the goal was not given,” Mr Djalili said. 

“They said the law is, ‘If you’ve played a few seconds on, it’s too late.’ 

“That is the thing that rankles, this whole idea that you’ve made a mistake but it’s too late.” 

Values

Some might question if he is making too big a deal out of a single goal - but Mr Djalili is adamant that there are very important principles at stake. 

“We are living in a post-truth world where we are sold alternative facts,” he said. 

“We are being sold the alternative fact that Luis Diaz was offside and that goal was wrong… If you don’t think this is a major problem in football, then you shouldn’t be a football fan.” 

The Premier League is understood to not be considering a replay.

You can listen back here:

Main image: Luis Diaz and Omid Djalili.