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The Premier League have acknowledged that Christian Bentekea s controversial winner for Liverpool FC in their 1-0 win against Bournemouth should have been disallowed for offside.
Liverpool FC scrapped to a 1-0 win against Bournemouth earlier this week at Anfield.
The difference was Bentekea s close-range goal at Anfield, his first for the club in the Premier League. The goal was allowed to stand by referee Craig Pawson despite team-mate Philippe Coutinho attempting to play the ball from an offside position.
The decision was widely criticized following the new changes to the interpretation of the offside rule in the Premier League this summer.
The Premier League, along with refereesa body PGMOL has clarified and accepted an error was made and the goal should have been ruled out.
The Premier League said that it does a not generally comment on decisions made by match officialsa but Mondaya s incident should have been an offside decision against Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho who attempted to, but did not, deflect the ball in the goal from an offside position.
The league has written to all the clubs to clarify the new interpretation of the offside law following the controversial goal.
A statement on the official Premier League website read: a The Premier League has this week written to its clubs to clarify the new interpretation of the offside law decided by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) this summer. Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) issued this guidance in order to clear up any misunderstandings that arose following the goal awarded to Liverpool in their Monday night match against AFC Bournemouth.
a The Premier League does not generally comment on decisions made by match officials. However, given the recent change to the interpretation of the offside law and the fact that it was made close to the start of the season, the league felt it was appropriate, in this instance, to publish in order to inform fans and other stakeholders.a
a In the incident in question, Benteke turned in a deep cross from Jordan Henderson at the far post after the ball flew past an offside Coutinho. Under the new guidance, Coutinho did not need to have touched the ball to have been considered interfering with play, as he would in the past. Coutinho only needed to play at the ball while it was close to him and for his action to impact an opponent. In this case that criteria was fulfilled and the law therefore not correctly enforced.a
That was not the only occasion on the night where Bournemouth felt hard done by. A Tommy Elphick goal was harshly disallowed for a foul on defender Dejan Lovren.
