PGMOL refereeing officer Howard Webb.
Howard Webb has broken his silence on the controversial decision to disallow Liverpool's equaliser against Manchester City.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb has defended the decision to rule out Liverpool's equaliser against Manchester City. The former referee has claimed it is "not unreasonable" to understand why Virgil van Dijk's header was chalked off.
The reigning champions were comfortably dispatched by Pep Guardiola's side on Sunday as they cruised to a 3-0 win at the Etihad Stadium. However, the after it was viewed that Andy Robertson, who was in an offside position, interfered with play.
The Scot was deemed to have made "an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper" but the claim was disputed by both Arne Slot and
Webb, who is the refereeing officer from PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), has offered an explanation behind the decision, which came 13 seconds after Van Dijk headed home, but failed to agree with former Liverpool striker and co-host Michael Owen, who felt the goal should have stood.
"For sure Michael, a huge decision in a big game," said Webb to the former England forward. "As the ball moves towards Robertson - three yards out from goal in the middle of the six-yard box - he makes that clear action to duck below the ball. It goes just over his head and finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is.
"The officials have to make a judgement, did that clear action impact on the goalkeeper and his ability to save the ball? That's where the subjectivity comes into play.
"They looked at that action so close to the goalkeeper and formed that opinion.
"I know that's not a view held by everybody but it's not unreasonable to understand why [the officials] would form that conclusion when the player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball is coming right towards him and he has to duck to get out of the way.
"They form the conclusion that it impacts Donnarumma's ability to dive towards the ball and make the save.
"Once they've made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide was the outcome clearly and obviously wrong.
"Only Donnarumma truly knows if he was impacted by this and we have to look at the factual evidence."
to raise their significant concerns surrounding the disallowed goal on Sunday. The ECHO understands that the Reds did not accept the premise that the decision was arrived at for subjective reasons.
The club further rejected suggestions that Andy Robertson impeded Donnarumma.
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