Wolves write to referees' chief after offside call against Liverpool

EXCLUSIVE: Wolves write to referees’ chief Howard Webb for answers after a ‘non-existent’ offside denied them a late winner at Liverpool in the FA Cup, when VAR failed to find a camera angle

  • Wolves have written to referee chief Howard Webb over a recent decision
  • Julen Lopetegui’s side were denied a late FA Cup winner against Liverpool
  • Defender Toti Gomes appeared to settle the cup tie with a late back heel 
  • But his goal was disallowed, with officials claiming an offside in the build up  
  • VAR had no evidence to overrule the on field decision – to the shock of Lopetegui

Wolves have written to referees’ chief Howard Webb after they were controversially denied victory by a disallowed goal at Liverpool last weekend.

Toti Gomes thought he had put Wolves 3-2 up late in the FA Cup third-round tie, only to be flagged offside. The decision was upheld by VAR despite no clear evidence that a Wolves player had been in an illegal position during the move.

But VAR had no camera angle available to provide any evidence to overturn the decision and the teams will reply at Molineux on January 17.

Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui was incensed the referee ruled out a late winner at Liverpool

Defender Toti Gomes thought he’d scored a winner before VAR denied the goal

The club have now written to referees’ chief Howard Webb for answers over the incident

Lopetegui was due to address the media on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final at Nottingham Forest, when he was expected to speak again on the matter.

At the time, the Spaniard and captain Ruben Neves sought clarification from referee Andy Madley. Lopetegui then said: ‘We have seen it, the offside doesn’t exist, I’m sorry. It’s impossible.

‘Someone has told him it’s offside, but we’ve seen the images, it doesn’t exist.

‘The decision is wrong. I make mistakes every day, and sometimes they do too. Today we have the help of VAR, and it is a pity, because I’m sorry, it’s not offside.’

Confusingly, VAR had no camera angle to confirm the on-field decision – which was offside

However, officials maintained the on-field decision to rule out the late Wolves winner

The goal was chalked off because officials believe Matheus Nunes, who had taken a corner, had been offside when the ball was returned to him.

Wolves were already frustrated that Mohamed Salah’s goal for Liverpool had stood, even though the forward was in an offside position when the cross was delivered. Officials judge that Toti’s attempted clearance, which fell to Salah, had played the Egyptian onside.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp added: ‘I’m not sure about their third goal. We have one picture where it may look offside, but I can understand why they are angry about it. We don’t want the VAR to just have one angle.’

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he can ‘understand’ Wolves’ frustration from the tie




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