BT Sport Director Responds to Jurgen Klopp After Liverpool Boss Claims TV Influenced Injury Time

BT Sport's senior director has responded to Jurgen Klopp's claim that the amount of injury time played during Saturday's FA Cup clash between Liverpool and West Brom was influenced by television.

The Reds were beaten 3-2 in a controversial tie at Anfield, and Klopp was clearly frustrated by the lack of added time in the first-half.

Referee Craig Pawson chose to play an additional four minutes after the game had been repeatedly delayed by the use of VAR.

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“What I heard was that the actual extra-time in the first half should have been 10 minutes. It was only four minutes. I heard that television said it’s not longer than four minutes,” said Klopp - quoted by the Telegraph.

“Of course that’s not possible, you can’t cut match time because there is something else to broadcast. I don’t know what was afterwards, maybe the news or something. It was 10 minutes and so you need to play 10 minutes longer. You cannot say it’s now a little bit too long.

“If it is 10 minutes, play 10 minutes. It will not happen often but, if it happens, everyone wants to see the game and not people standing around while someone makes a decision. 

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"When we got the introduction about VAR, they have a lot of screens where they can watch it from different angles so make a decision and go.”

BT Sport's senior director, Sean Hughes, has since debunked the accusations. 

"I directed the match and I can categorically state that at no point did I (can add ‘have I’ or ‘would I’ to that) ever try to influence the officials, including the allocation of stoppage time," he wrote on Twitter. "Not only would it be unprofessional, it would also be utterly futile."