Ryan Babel's post about referee Simon Hooper after Spurs v Liverpool drama goes viral | OneFootball

Highlights

Ryan Babel has gone viral for his post about referee Simon Hooper after all the controversy surrounding Liverpool's 2-1 defeat against Tottenham. The game saw Jurgen Klopp's side handed their first defeat of the season while Ange Postecoglou's side were able to reach second place in the Premier League.

Son Heung-min scored the opener for the home side before Cody Gakpo rifled in the equaliser moments before half-time, injuring himself in the process. Joel Matip was the unfortunate man to divert the ball into the top corner of his own goal to hand Postecoglou's side all three points in the final minute of stoppage time.

The game between two of the form sides in the division saw Liverpool reduced to nine men by the 70th minute with Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota given their marching orders by Hooper. The former saw his initial yellow card upgraded to red after the intervention of VAR, while Jota was sent off for two bookable offences in the second-half.

VAR controversy denies Luis Diaz goal

These were unfortunately not the most controversial calls to go against Klopp's team as a Luis Diaz effort was incorrectly ruled out for offside while the scoreline was still at 0-0. Following the flag being raised by the linesman, the referee blew his whistle and awaited the verdict from VAR.

Inexplicably, it has been reported that Darren England - the VAR official on the day - believed the goal had been given, and saw no reason to intervene as Diaz was shown to be played onside by Micky van de Ven's foot. England proceeded to tell Hooper that the decision was correct, but then it became clear an error had occurred when Tottenham took a free-kick following the incident.

Since the game finished, England and his assistant on the day - Dan Cook - have been stood down from their scheduled officiating duties for the remainder of the weekend and a statement has been released by PGMOL to acknowledge 'significant human error' had taken place.

Ryan Babel has history with referees

It's not the first time that the former Liverpool forward has made his feelings known when it comes to referees, as seen in 2011 when he posted a picture of Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt following his team's 1-0 loss to the Red Devils.

Webb had given United a controversial penalty that ended up being the deciding factor in that game, and Babel was quick to make his feelings known. It may not have been the best call however, as the Dutchman was handed a £10,000 fine for making the post.

Babel fumes at Simon Hooper after Spurs vs Liverpool

In the aftermath of the Tottenham loss, the ex-Liverpool winger took to X (formerly Twitter) to post a similar picture of Hooper, this time in a Spurs shirt. While the quality of the Photoshop work can be questioned, the meaning behind the post can't.

The post was simply captioned: "Players of LFC should be allowed to post this picture tho…" which shows exactly what he was thinking. Many Liverpool fans will be feeling the same way after seeing their side so harshly done by. Babel doesn't seem to have learned his lesson from the first instance over a decade ago.

Ryan Babel's career stats