Howard Webb is seriously clueless as PGMOL boss' stance on Man City vs Liverpool controversy emerges

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Credit: Sky Sports Tue 11 November 2025 20:30, UK Howard Webb will have only infuriated football supporters more after analysing the biggest talking point from Man City’s win over Liverpool.Jeremy Doku was clipped by Giorgi Mamardashvili inside the penalty area to allow Erling Haaland the chance to open the scoring, only for the Norwegian star to miss from 12 yards on Sunday, 9 November.He quickly made up for that error with a fantastically taken header just 16 minutes later, before Nico Gonzalez and Doku cemented the win in front of a buzzing Etihad Stadium crowd.Of course, it was not quite as smooth sailing as the report would make you believe, with Virgil van Dijk controversially seeing an equaliser disallowed for offside on Andy Robertson.Howard Webb backs the decision to disallow Liverpool goalWhile there is absolutely no doubt that the Scot was in an offside position, we all know that Gianluigi Donnarumma‘s attempted save was in no way affected by the player.It was a perfectly good goal, one that should have stood, but, unsurprisingly, Webb has stood by his referees in another moment of poor officiating this season.Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, the PGMOL boss said: “When Van Dijk heads the ball forward, that’s the moment when we have to make an offside judgment about Robertson and about what he’s doing there. MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES “We know he doesn’t touch the ball, but what does he do?

Well, as the ball moves towards him, three yards out from goal, right in the middle of the six-yard box, he makes that clear action to duck below the ball.”Listen to the audio of Virgil van Dijk's goal against Manchester City being disallowed 🔊Speaking on Match Officials Mic'd Up, PGMO chief Howard Webb explains why VAR did not intervene to overturn the decision. pic.twitter.com/l3sYMYmjJR— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 11, 2025 View Tweet He proceeds to explain that the officials had to make a split-second decision, but isn’t that point nullified by the fact that the Premier League uses VAR? Michael Oliver had plenty of opportunity to set the record straight.Jamie Carragher has already proven why Man City were fortunateWhen speaking post-match, Jamie Carragher explained very clearly why the goal should have stood, analysing the movement of Donnarumma in between the sticks in the lead-up to the moment.Once the footage is slowed down, it becomes obvious that the City goalkeeper is expecting the header to be planted in the opposite corner, and therefore, his body is moving that way.Only when the ball is already above Robertson’s head does Donnarumma plant his foot, push off, and make an attempt to save the goal-bound shot.

In no way has the Liverpool man interfered.Webb could have saved himself a lot of outrage had he just admitted that the wrong conclusion was reached by the referee, his officials, and the VAR. He had to protect his referees instead of facing the truth.There does not appear to be an improvement in refereeing standards across the board in the Premier League, and if the head of the PGMOL is endorsing mistakes like these, it is easy to understand why.