VAR drama: Liverpool star's wife accuses referees of 'rigging' Tottenham game
Tom Weber
- Updated: 2 Oct 2023 19:43 BST
- 4 min read
Rute Cardoso, Diogo Jota's wife, has claimed that the match between Liverpool and Tottenham was rigged after the Video Assistant Referee drama.
Nine-man Liverpool were beaten at the weekend by Tottenham thanks to a 96th-minute own goal from Joel Matip, but the officiating of the game made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Besides two Reds players receiving their marching orders, Luis Diaz had a goal wrongly disallowed for an offside that wasn't.
PGMOL, the refereeing body of English football, has since released a statement apologising for the Diaz incident, but Liverpool have still been fined for 'ill-discipline' during the game.
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The decision to disallow Diaz's goal was all the more egregious given that it wasn't a technical error that caused the refereeing mistake but simply miscommunication, with the VAR erroneously believing that the goal had been given by the on-field official.
Liverpool have requested an audio recording of the conversation between the match referee and the VAR to be made available before the club will decide which action to take next. The Reds have also appealed against the decision of official Siman Hooper to show Curtis Jones a red card.
Rute Cardoso, Diogo Jota's girlfriend shared a video on her Instagram story, slamming Premier League officials after the red card against Tottenham. pic.twitter.com/MyelcHdBF9
— Mide (@Stevosten) October 2, 2023
Jota's wife claims game was rigged
The second player to be sent off that day was Diogo Jota. The Portuguese received two yellow cards in quick succession, with the first one being rather questionable. It initially seemed as though the 26-year-old had tripped up Destiny Udogie, but a different angle of the incident showed that the Italian stumbled over his own feet.
What also left Liverpool supporters infuriated was the fact that the 20-year-old gestured at the referee to show Jota a yellow card, something officials have been instructed to caution - this would have seen Udogie get sent off.
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Among the raging Reds was Jota's wife, Rute Cardoso, who took to Instagram to slam the match officials as clowns for the first yellow her husband received. She then reposted the PGMOL apology with the words 'rigged game.'
Jota will miss Liverpool's trip to Brighton due to his suspension.
