Liverpool Football Club has taken the formal step of contacting the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to voice its strong disagreement with the decision to disallow a Virgil van Dijk goal during their recent 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The Controversial Incident at the Etihad
The pivotal moment occurred in the 38th minute of the match, with Manchester City leading 1-0. Virgil van Dijk powered a header past City's goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, only for the effort to be ruled out by referee Chris Kavanagh. The decision was backed by Video Assistant Referee Michael Oliver.
The officials determined that Liverpool defender Andy Robertson, who was in an offside position, interfered with play by making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper as he ducked out of the way of Van Dijk's header.
Liverpool's Dispute of the Interpretation
Liverpool fundamentally disagree with this interpretation. The club's position is that Robertson did not affect Donnarumma's line of vision and that the relevant criteria of Law 11 of the game were not met.
The club is understood to be bewildered by the VAR's failure to overturn the on-field decision and has contacted the head of the PGMOL, Howard Webb, to formally challenge the ruling. Liverpool argue that Robertson's action of ducking does not fall under the law's definition of interfering with an opponent by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or impacting their ability to play the ball.
Slot's Reaction and a Reference to a Past Decision
Despite the controversy, Liverpool's head coach, Arne Slot, refused to blame the decision for his team's overall poor performance and subsequent defeat, which was the 1,000th game of Pep Guardiola's managerial career.
However, Slot was adamant that a clear error had been made. He pointed to a previous incident involving the same referee, Chris Kavanagh. Slot referenced a goal allowed for Manchester City against Wolves last season, where Bernardo Silva was in a similar offside position near the goalkeeper when John Stones scored. That goal was allowed to stand after a lengthy delay.
Slot stated, He [Robertson] didn't interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do. He conceded that being 2-0 down at half-time was a fair reflection of the first half's play, but emphasised that the disallowed goal could have positively influenced the game's momentum for his side.
