Howard Webb has offered his reasoning for why John Stones\u2019 goal in Manchester City\u2019s win over Wolves last season was allowed to stand, while Virgil van Dijk\u2019s similar strike against the same team at the Etihad on Sunday was ruled out.<\/p>\n
Both incidents appeared almost identical: a corner was taken, an attacker stood in an offside position near the goalkeeper, and the ball ended up in the net \u2014 prompting the assistant referee\u2019s flag. Yet, while VAR overturned the on-field decision at Molineux 13 months ago, Liverpool\u2019s equaliser at the weekend was disallowed after review.<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s explanation for the Stones goal<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Match Officials: Mic\u2019d Up programme on Tuesday night, Webb addressed the controversy after the VAR audio from Van Dijk\u2019s disallowed goal was released. When Michael Owen asked him why two nearly identical situations had different outcomes, Webb referred back to Stones\u2019 goal in October 2024.<\/p>\n
According to the PGMOL chief (via Sky Sports), \u201cThe difference here is that the ball travels directly over Jos\u00e9 S\u00e1\u2019s head, not over Bernardo Silva\u2019s. Silva, who was offside, moves left and away from the ball\u2019s path. The ball goes straight over S\u00e1; it doesn\u2019t pass over Silva\u2019s head like it did over Andy Robertson\u2019s, who ducked beneath it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see how S\u00e1\u2019s actions were affected by Silva. If the ball had gone over Silva\u2019s head, possibly making S\u00e1 hesitate, then we\u2019d have upheld the on-field decision for a disallowed goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s reasoning doesn\u2019t hold up<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s comments have left many baffled. During that Wolves match, Silva clearly moved toward S\u00e1, even making contact before stepping aside as Stones headed the ball \u2014 behaviour that arguably interfered with the goalkeeper. If that wasn\u2019t considered obstruction, it\u2019s difficult to see how Robertson\u2019s minor movement against Donnarumma merited Liverpool\u2019s goal being ruled out.<\/p>\n
In reality, the incident at Molineux involved far more interference than the one at the Etihad, yet only the latter was penalised. Webb\u2019s explanation has done little to calm the frustration of Liverpool fans, instead deepening confusion and anger over the inconsistency of officiating decisions.<\/p>\n
Once again, supporters are left questioning how Premier League referees and VAR officials continue to deliver contradictory rulings, seemingly without accountability or genuine efforts to raise officiating standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Webb has offered his reasoning for why John Stones\u2019 goal in Manchester City\u2019s win over Wolves last season was allowed to stand, while Virgil van Dijk\u2019s similar strike against the same team at the Etihad on Sunday was ruled out. Both incidents appeared almost identical: a corner was taken, an attacker stood in an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/stones-robertson-webb-768x431.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54276,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54274\/revisions\/54276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}