Ex-referee calls for law change after Liverpool offside incidents

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A former Premier League referee has called for clarification of the offside law after Murillo’s goal against Liverpool stood on Saturday. Against Man City, Virgil van Dijk‘s headed goal was disallowed by the VAR after it was deemed that Andy Robertson, who was standing in an offside position, interfered with play when ducking out of the way of the ball.

Murillo’s goal at Anfield stood and in this writer’s opinion, rightly so, because Alisson‘s view wasn’t obstructed by Dan Ndoye, despite him being in an offside position. Arsenal‘s second goal against Tottenham was perhaps the perfect example of how players can impact a goalkeeper while standing in an offside position, but this wasn’t ruled out.

Going by IFAB’s own definition of offside, this goal should have been ruled out. At the moment, people are saying this has happened to our team this week and this has happened to our team this week.” Gallagher may say the law is currently too subjective, but the definitions provided by IFAB make it quite clear that if an offside player is blocking the goalkeeper’s line of vision, then offside should be given.