Ryan Babel's post about referee Simon Hooper goes viral after Liverpool's controversial Spurs defeat

Former Liverpool attacker Ryan Babel was scathing of referee Simon Hooper after the Reds’ 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.

On Saturday the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the governing body of English referees, apologised to Liverpool after officials wrongly ruled out a goal in the club’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.

The PGMOL admitted a "significant human error" was made when a goal by Liverpool's Luis Diaz was disallowed because of offside when the score was locked at 0-0.

Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham went on to win 2-1 courtesy of a Liverpool own goal in the dying seconds.

Match referee Hooper, who also sent off two Liverpool players in the encounter, ruled out Diaz's 34th-minute effort after the assistant's offside flag was raised.

The referee’s decision was upheld after a quick VAR check by Darren England at Stockley Park, despite it appearing that Cristian Romero played Diaz onside. Spurs took the lead two minutes after the controversial call.

And former Liverpool and Fulham player Babel was among Hooper’s many critics after the game.

In the aftermath of the Tottenham loss, the ex-Liverpool winger took to X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter, to post a photoshopped picture of Hooper in a Spurs shirt.

Babel captioned the picture: "Players of LFC should be allowed to post this picture tho…"

The 36-year-old has a history of voicing his frustration towards officials.

In 2011, while a Liverpool player, Babel was fined £10,000 for posting a picture of then-referee Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt following a 1-0 defeat to the Old Trafford club.

After the latest controversy in Spurs win over Liverpool, The PGMOL said in a statement: "PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool.

"The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials.

"This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.

"PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error", and "will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error."

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