Liverpool have contacted Professional Game Match Officials Limited to raise concerns about the decision to disallow Virgil van Dijk’s goal in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester City.
With City leading 1-0, Van Dijk looked to have equalised with a header, but the goal was ruled out on the field and the decision was confirmed after a Video Assistant Referee review. VAR concluded Andrew Robertson was in an offside position because he was in front of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and had made an obvious action by ducking directly in front of the keeper.
The club do not accept that the criteria for an offside offence, as set out in the laws, were met. After reviewing footage from multiple angles, Liverpool reject the suggestion Robertson impacted Donnarumma’s line of sight. They are also baffled why the VAR process, overseen by Michael Oliver, did not result in the goal being awarded.
Liverpool have accepted the match result but felt it necessary to contact Howard Webb, head of PGMOL, to express their concerns because they believe the incident should not go unchallenged.
The relevant wording of Law 11 states a player in an offside position is only penalised on becoming active by: “interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or interfering with an opponent by preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball or clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.”
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