Question Number: 32359

Law 11 - Offside 4/11/2018

RE: Adult

Matt of Wrexham, WREXHAM United Kingdom asks...

Was Leroy Sane's goal against Liverpool wrongly disallowed?

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

HI Matt,
the CR & AR debated the circumstances and came up with an offside call. The fact we all think it was incorrect as a fact of play matters not! That call had to be based on what they THOUGHT had occurred!

For them to declare a no goal they had to establish some baseline objectives.

Was Leroy ever in an offside position?
Was the punch out a DELIBERATE save?
Was the rebound off the defender AFTER the punch a deflection or a deliberate play?
Did they make a mistake thinking it was played in by the attacker's foot and not the defender? Once you have incorrectly placed a PIOP if the officials see involvement the outcome is already flawed. This is the most likely conclusion.

It is not unbelievable that the AR thought Gabriel Jesus had played the ball, he remained where he was got eye contact and waited to CONFIRM with the referee but if the CR had also missed the ball had come off a James Milner touch then the logical conclusion off the mistake is to NOT award the goal. as in their minds it was offside.

One very far out theory would be to for the CR to have decided that the Miller touch was actually a deflection NOT a deliberate play, thus the decision would also be the Keeper's punch out WAS a deliberate save which does not reset offside parameters & as a DEFLECTION does not reset.

However, for that convoluted theory Leroy would have to been offside earlier on the original shot to be guilty of gaining an advantage! Unfortunately he was NOT offside positioned at the time of the original shot byDeBruyne .

Onside players can go where ever they want! I have to hope the officials were not reaching for an offside decision based on a double deflection due to Sane looking like a PIOP when he scored. He was an ONSIDE player when DeBruyne shot!

On this incident the referee is going to have to suffer the barbs, slings and arrows of his match his decision his reputation. This could have been a good use of the techno VAR system.

Justice or Karma? I think the missed foul that lead to MC's 1st goal shows what goes around comes around in the wheel of life!

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Matt
When I first saw it I thought the decision was correct in that Sane was in an offside position when he played the ball into the goal and that it was played forward by Blue. On review it was shown that the ball was in fact last played by Milner Red so that it could not then be offside. So the goal should have stood.
I remember watching the AR standing in position shouting into his mic which was to, I assume, alert the referee that he was unsure of who last played the ball to Sane. In the absence of that information he had to go with his offside flag. If he was 100% certain that it was not offside he would have sprinted up the line to confirm the goal.
Now I have looked at it again and it is over in a split second with Milner and Jesus stood together and both motion towards the ball yet with video we can see it was Milner that played the ball so it could not have been offside.
I think that location, events, motions towards the ball all contributed to the wrong decision being made. Had VAR been available the goal would have been awarded.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Matt,
Assuming the goal was disallowed for offside, then I would say it was wrongly ruled out. There was some initial speculation by the commentators that it might have been because of a foul on the goalkeeper as he punched the ball but as they themselves pointed out, there was no real evidence of a foul.

For a player to be judged guilty of an offside offence, they have to be in an offside position when the ball was played or touched by a team mate. Since, at the time of the last touch on the ball by a Manchester City player, Sane was not in an offside position, he could not be guilty of an offside offence, no matter how we judge the nature of the subsequent touches by two Liverpool players.

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

HI Matt,
No matter how you try to interpret what occurred the officials got it wrong, it happens. The VAR system might have corrected the mistake if it was in place.

Man City will feel aggrieved, the officials will be sad they screwed up but the game had several shots missed, everyone makes mistakes.

from our pitch to your pitch in the spirit of fair play