As the fallout for Liverpool‘s wrongly disallowed goal rumbles on, the question is what will happen next in light of the incident. 

With Liverpool already down to ten men and the score goalless, Luis Diaz thought he had put the Reds in the lead against Tottenham on Saturday. 

However, the goal was ruled for offside by both the on field officials and VAR, despite replays clearly showing the Colombian was in an offside position. 

After the game PGMOL issued an apology to the club, citing a human error led to the wrong outcome. But Liverpool aren’t happy and believe the decision undermined sporting integrity, leading to possible speculation the game could be replayed. 

A replay is a rare occurrence in football, but here are seven examples of a game or incident being repeated. 

Arsenal vs Sheffield United, February 1999 

The most famous game in the modern era to be replayed is this FA Cup Fifth Round clash at Highbury in 1999. 

First Division Sheffield United were the visitors to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, and with the game poised at 1-1 thanks to goals from Patrick Vieira for the hosts and Marcelo’s equaliser for the Blades, the game took a chaotic turn. 

United goalie Alan Kelly kicked the ball out for a throw-in to allow injured team-mate Lee Morris to receive treatment. The Blades were then under the impression Arsenal would return the ball to them following the restart. 

That’s exactly what Ray Parlour intended to do, but didn’t bargain for debutant Nwankwo Kanu. The Nigerian intercepted the pass back to the Blades, laid the ball off to Marc Overmars, who then put the ball into the net to make it 2-1. 

The goal caused uproar amongst the away side, with boss Steve Bruce ordering his players to walk off the pitch in protest. 

The game was able to finish, with the Gunners going through, but the injustice raged on, and in the aftermath Wenger offered United a rematch – which was agreed on by both teams. 

Arsenal would win the repeated fixture, thanks to a goal from ironically from Overmars and a Dennis Bergkamp winner.  

Leeds vs Aston Villa, April 2019  

There was never a dull moment during Marcelo Bielsa’s riegn at Leeds and this was no exception in one of the Championship’s most bizarre moments. 

After Jonathan Kodjia went down injured for Aston Villa, the Villa players stopped play as Leeds’ Tyler Roberts slowed down, indicating his team were about to also down tools. 

Except Roberts then ran through the defence and squared the ball to Mateusz Klich who curled the ball into the net, sparking huge scenes of uproar and an on-pitch melee. 

The actions didn’t go down well with Bielsa, who then ordered his team to let Villa score straight from kick-off to make it for the injustice. Unfortunately, defender Pontus Jansson didn’t agree and was the only Leeds player to challenge Albert Adomah as he put the ball into the net to make it 1-1. 

While the rest of his team stood and watched Adomah restore sporting integrity, Jansson tried to stop the goal and then felt the wrath of his team-mates for going against the managers wishes. 

Rangers vs Partick Thistle, February 2023 

Over in Scotland, Rangers were also the pantomime bad guys after Malik Tillman scored in controversial fashion against Partick Thistle last season. 

With the score at 1-1, Rangers kicked the ball out to allow Tillman to receive treatment. However, as Partick attempt to play the ball back to Rangers, skipper Kevin Holt miss controlled the ball. 

Tillman saw this as a chance to pounce and promptly nicked the ball off the Partick player and put Rangers in front, without given the away side a chance to play it back to their hosts. 

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Cue scenes of a twenty-man brawl as the sides argue over the incident, before Gers boss Michael Beale ordered his team to let Partick score straight from kick-off. 

Scott Tiffoney then waltzed through the Rangers half to draw the game back level – even evading a challenge from Allan McGregor who didn’t seem to be completely in agreement with his managers orders. 

Rangers went on to win the game 3-2 thanks to a late goal from Jamie Sands.  

Brixham vs Bridgwater United, August 2021

Brixham and Bridgwater’s game in this FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round had to be replayed following an error in disciplinary laws from the referee. 

Having beaten 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 rather than sending him off the pitch. 

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 game having to be replayed between the two non-league teams.  

Exwick Villa vs Bow AAC, November 2019

More non-league officiating issues came in this tie involving Devon & Exeter League Division One clubs Exwick Villa and Bow AAC.

With the score locked at 0-0 after 90 minutes in their Devon Senior Cup third round clash, the match was allowed to go into extra time and saw Bow score twice to seemingly progress to the next round. 

However, rules of the competition state that games don’t allow for extra time and if level after 90 minutes then matches should go straight to a penalty shoot-out. 

Meaning Bow’s extra time exploits counted for nothing as the game had to replayed and it resulted in a 4-3 win for Exwick Villa. 

Besiktas vs Genclerbirligi, February 2015

Over in Turkey a row over the number of time a referee blew his whistle led to a game between Besiktas and Genclerbirlgi getting replayed. 

Referee Kuddusi Muftuoglu admitted making a mistake at a free kick that led to a equaliser for the visitors to see the game end 1-1.

FIFA referee Muftuoglu confirmed in his report that he blew his whistle three times, once for the set piece to be taken, a second time for infringement in the wall and a third to allow the goal. However, after the second whistle the free-kick should have been retaken and therefore an error was made leading to the goal. 

The error led to the Turkish FA ordering the fixture to be played again.  

Edgware Town vs Harefield United, September 2006

Another confusion in the laws of the game saw Edgware Town and Harefield United also have to repeat their game against each over – this time over a disallowed penalty. 

The referee ruled out an Edgware penalty for encroachment instead of ordering a re-take, mistakenly awarded an indirect free-kick to Harefield – who went on to win the game 1-0.

However, following the error, the FA and Spartan South Midlands league ordered it be replayed. 

Any the ones that got away with it… 

Not all big errors are met with calls for a replay however, and there have been a few to escape over the years.

In 2000 as part of their FA Cup heroics, First Division Tranmere knocked out Premier League Sunderland, but their 1-0 victory came with some controversy. 

Clint Hill was sent off in injury time for Tranmere, but Rovers managed to bring on a substitute for the dismissed player without the officials noticing. 

The game continued for a number of minutes before it went noticed, leading to a fiery exchange from the two benches. 

More recently Sheffield United were the unlucky victims of a failure in technology during their Premier League meeting with Aston Villa in 2020.

Oliver Norwood’s free-kick was fumbled over the line by Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, but the goal-line decision system did not alert referee Michael Oliver the ball crossed the line and it was ruled out.