Liverpool have formally filed a complaint with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) regarding Virgil van Dijk's disallowed goal..
2025-11-12 04:48
Sky Sports and The Athletic both reported on Tuesday that Liverpool have formally filed a complaint with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) regarding their captain Virgil van Dijk's disallowed goal.
According to the reports, Liverpool are "extremely concerned" about the "significant and obvious error in refereeing decision" during the match. The Reds insist on not accepting the hypothetical explanations offered by the authorities, demanding a reasonable explanation for the disallowed goal, and urging the PGMOL to seriously address the increasingly frequent occurrence of refereeing errors.
Liverpool also believes that the refereeing team's decision which was made based on VAR review was too hasty, and that the VAR assistant referees did not follow proper procedures, resulting in a conclusion that the decision was not fairly reached.
Due to the serious suspicion of unfair officiating arising from this refereeing decision error, Liverpool requested that PGMOL Chief Executive Howard Webb personally provide an explanation.
However, despite the complaint, Webb and the PGMOL remain adamant in their refusal to plead guilty.
Webb later defended the decision through the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) website, stating, "The referee's decision to disallow Liverpool's goal for offside was correct. VAR confirmed this decision; Robertson was in an offside position and was deemed to have made a clear obstruction in front of the goalkeeper."
However, the fact remains that Andy Robinson was not offside at all.
This controversy stemmed from a corner kick taken which was by Mohamed Salah and was crossed into the box.
At the time, Robinson, positioned near the left post, had already bent down after Van Dijk's scored by heading the ball into the net, making no obstruction of the ball's movement and being far enough away from Gianluigi Donnarumma who was on his right. There was absolutely no evidence that the Scotland international left wing-back obstructed Donnarumma's view or interfered with his fair right to make a save.
However, referee Michael Oliver, notorious for his refereeing decision error and controversial decisions, hastily declared that VAR assistant referee deemed Robinson had been offside because he "stood in front of Donnarumma and had obstructed the play," thus disallowing the goal.
This ruling completely contradicts Article 11 of the English Fooball Association's rules.
It's worth noting that this is already the fourth time in three years that Liverpool has filed a complaint PGMOL for clear refereeing decision error.
Most notably, in October 2023, Luis Díaz scored a goal legitimately against Tottenham Hotspur, only to have it inexplicably disallowed by VAR for offside.
At the time, the controversy was so severe that it drew fierce criticism from fans of all 20 Premier League participating clubs before the authorities and Webb finally apologized.
