Liverpool contact PGMOL over Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal

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Liverpool have reached out to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to raise concerns over Virgil van Dijk‘s disallowed goal against Man City. Van Dijk converted Mohamed Salah‘s corner to equalise for Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium, but his goal was ruled out after the linesman raised his flag.

VAR Michael Oliver checked and confirmed the decision, which ruled Andy Robertson was interfering in an offside position. The Premier League‘s match centre provided an official explanation soon after, stating: “The referee’s call of offside and no goal to Liverpool was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Robertson in an offside position and deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper.” And now, according to the Athletic‘s James Pearce, Liverpool have contacted referees’ chief Howard Webb “to raise serious concerns” about the disallowed goal.

Pearce adds that Liverpool have told the PGMOL “that they do not accept that the decision was arrived at for subjective reasons.” Instead, “they believe that the wording of the law is clear and that no elements of the criteria needed to disallow the goal were met so it should have been allowed to stand.” Moreover, the club’s “view is that the usual checks and balances that are central to the VAR process did not take place, and they believe a different outcome may have been reached.” The rules that played a role in the goal being ruled out pertain to Law 11 which, in the Premier League, includes: ‘Preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by obstructing the line of vision’, ‘challenging an opponent for the ball’, ‘attempting to play a ball which impacts an opponent’, and making an ‘obvious action which impacts opponent’. He was, however, deemed to have made an action in front of the goalkeeper, with the linesman raising his flag 13 seconds after the ball hit the back of the net.