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Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb says it was “not unreasonable” for Virgil van Dijk’s goal to be disallowed for offside against Manchester City on Sunday.

Van Dijk thought he had equalised for Liverpool in the 38th minute, but referee Chris Kavanagh and his assistant Stuart Burt decided Andrew Robertson had committed an offside offence by ducking under the flight of the ball, which had impacted goalkeeper Gianluiga Donnarumma.

The Video Assistant Referee, Michael Oliver, checked the incident and supported the on-field call, with Manchester City going on to win the game 3-0.

Webb, speaking on the Match Officials Mic’d Up show, said that while he accepted there would be a difference of opinion, there were valid reasons for the goal to be ruled out.

“Interfering with an opponent where the offside position player doesn’t play the ball and the officials have to make a judgment whether the actions of that player impact an opponent, are some of the most subjective decisions that we have to make,” said Webb.

“Therefore, it’s no surprise that some people believe this goal should have stood, so I think it’s important that we look at the facts of what actually happened in this situation.

“We know the corner comes in and the ball reaches Van Dijk. As the ball’s coming across the penalty area, the Manchester City players move out, they leave Robertson in that offside position in the heart of the six-yard box.

“When Van Dijk heads the ball forward, that’s the moment when we have to make an offside judgment about Robertson and about what he’s doing there.

“We know he doesn’t touch the ball but what does he do? Well, as the ball moves towards him, three yards out from goal, right in the middle of the six-yard box, he makes that clear action to duck below the ball.

“The ball goes just over his head, and the ball finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is. Then, the officials have to make a judgment – did that clear action impact on Donnarumma, the goalkeeper, and his ability to save the ball? And that’s where the subjectivity comes into play.

“Obviously that’s the conclusion they drew on that. They looked at that position, they looked at that action, so close to the goalkeeper, and they formed that opinion.

“I know that’s not a view held by everybody but I think it’s not unreasonable to understand why they would form that conclusion.

“The player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball’s coming right towards him and he has to duck to get out of the way of the ball – and they form the conclusion that that impacts Donnarumma’s ability just to dive towards the ball and make that save.

“And then, of course, once they’ve made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide, was the outcome of offside clearly and obviously wrong?

Webb explained that there were a number of issues that had to be weighed up by the officials.

“You do hear the assistant [on the VAR audio], in this case, talk about line of vision. I agree with you, the line of vision normally would relate to the view being blocked of the ball,” he said.

“On that one, he does see the ball all the way, but the assistant also talks about other things, ducking below the ball, being close to the goalkeeper.

“Those in themselves can be enough to penalise a player for offside, [by] interfering with an opponent. Even if the keeper can see the ball coming all the way along, he’s still in front of the goalkeeper, he still makes that ducking action that could still cause hesitation from the goalkeeper.

“Goalkeepers work on reactions that make it possible to pull out some incredible saves and that’s the judgment formed on the field. So, [apart from] the line of vision, there’s other aspects that can also say that this is an offside offence, and that’s why the VAR left it alone.”

Liverpool boss Arne Slot had made comparisons to a goal scored by Manchester City at Wolves last season, which was initially ruled out for a similar offside against Bernardo Silva but given through a VAR review.

“I think there’s a clear difference here in that the ball goes directly over the goalkeeper Jose Sa’s head,” Webb explained. “It doesn’t go over Bernardo Silva.

“Bernardo Silva is an offside position when John Stones heads the ball forward. Importantly, he moved to the left, away from the flight of the ball, and the ball goes straight over Sa, it doesn’t go over the head of Bernardo Silva in the way that it went over the head of Robertson, who ducked below it.

British tennis player Emma Raducanu and Brighton and Hove Albion manager Fabian Hurzeler have both been guests at England’s men’s rugby union training camp this week.

Head coach Steve Borthwick, speaking before facing New Zealand at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday, said that the duo’s attendance was so they could speak to his players and help share experiences with them.

Raducanu was the youngest female player to win a Grand Slam title in 17 years when winning the 2021 US Open, while German Hurzeler is the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history.

“We’ve had Fabian Hurzeler, the Brighton manager. He’s been brilliant sharing his experiences and spoke to the team this morning which was terrific,” said Borthwick.

“Emma Raducanu visited today and to have elite sports people like Emma Raducanu visit and share with the players her experiences, her preparations for sport and international competitions at the very, very top level is always a learning experience.

“We’re very grateful she came to visit and with her provisions, it’s been a good week so far.”

Borthwick felt that in Raducanu’s case, she was able to share her individual experiences unique to tennis that he felt could aide his squad who are more used to team sports.

“I think the players were journalists in the rounds just talking in the contrast around individual preparation and a need to feel that everything is right and for a tennis player who is on there own out there on the court, individual preparation is everything,” Borthwick added.

“For a team sport member, it is always getting that balance but we still need to maximise that individual preparation.”

As well as the duo, former England players Chris Ashton, Marko Vunipola and Danny Care also visited the England squad this week.

“Fortunately, we have the opportunity to sometimes have people in like we have this week and you take them as learning experiences.

“I think part of developing this team is adding levels of experience and adding reference points, conversations we’ve had and lessons that we’ve logged that we can refer back to in the future.

“All of these experiences come back to our camp and share with us is important for our development. “

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World Cup qualifying: Greece v Scotland

Venue: Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus Date: Saturday, 15 November Time: 19:45 GMT

Not many 20-year-olds blow out their birthday candles wishing for a World Cup appearance in the coming year.

But Ben Gannon-Doak has proven over the years he is far from your average boy.

The dazzling Bournemouth winger brought in his latest big day out in Turkey, where Steve Clarke has taken his squad for a warm weather training camp in the lead up to their two final and crucial World Cup qualifying group stage games.

The Scots are safe in the knowledge a play-off place is in the bank, but Gannon-Doak and his pals have their eyes set on automatic qualification.

Avoid defeat in Greece and come out on top in the winner-takes-all meeting with Denmark next Tuesday and they will have done that.

Gannon-Doak’s confidence mustn’t be mistaken for cockiness. In fact, he’s the farthest from it. Even though he’d have a case for being so.

At 16, he decided to leave home and head for the bright lights of the Premier League and Liverpool, something that “humbled” him.

“When you join a club of that stature, you see how high the level can really go,” Gannon-Doak told the BBC in Antalya.

“It humbles you a lot and shows you how far you need to go, but it also shows you that when you do well against those players, you can do it against anyone.”

In the summer, the Cherries churned out £25m for the teenager, who many members of the Tartan Army are hanging their hats on in the quest to reach a first men’s World Cup of his lifetime.

But the soft spoken, polite Gannon-Doak plays all that pressure down. His football does the talking.

“I don’t really feel that responsibility, to be honest,” he added of the supporters’ hopes.

“There’s some players who have done a whole lot more than what I’ve done in my career in the squad.

“We’ve actually got a really good squad as well, so I don’t really feel the responsibility is on me, I think it’s on all of us to play well as a team.

“Obviously, it would be great if I go and make a big contribution, but I really don’t care how we do it as long as we do it.”

And do it, Gannon-Doak, is sure Scotland will.

He missed the trip out to Piraeus for the Nations League play-off in March through injury – and it was certainly felt across the two legs – but started against the Greeks last month when the Scots snatched an unlikely late win.

“They’ll be looking for a bit of revenge this weekend,” the birthday boy, who was ending his day on the golf course with a few team-mates, despite being “not very good at golf,” said.

“Obviously, we’re all aware we weren’t at our best against Greece, but we still won, which is a sign of a good side.

Veteran MMA referee Herb Dean says officials will look to more regularly enforce point deductions for eye pokes after recent controversies and meetings around the issue.

Tom Aspinall’s UFC heavyweight title fight was brought to a premature end last month when Ciryl Gane poked the Briton in the eyes.

Referee Jason Herzog elected to call the fight a no-contest, rather than disqualify Gane for the foul.

Dean, who has officiated more than 1,000 bouts, says referees are “talking” about using rules already available to them to stop eye pokes.

“We’ve made rules,” Dean told Michael Bisping’s Believe You Me podcast.

“It’s a foul to extend the fingers towards the eyes. That’s the rule we’ve already had in place.

“So that rule has been there, but we haven’t been enforcing it. So we’re going to move forward on that.”

Aspinall kept his title despite the no-contest, but was booed by the crowd in Abu Dhabi despite his assertion he could not see – and replays showing he was poked in both eyes.

The Briton is still waiting to find out the extent of the eye injury and was unable to see in the week after the fight.

The controversy ignited a debate as to why Gane was not disqualified.

Referees and athletic commissions in the United States meet regularly to discuss rules and officiating in MMA.

It is at the referee’s discretion whether they deem an eye poke is intentional or not, which affects the resulting punishment.

Dean says deducting a point from an opponent, regardless of intention, has not been regular practise from referees in the UFC or wider MMA world, but they are permitted to do it.

“This right here is a dangerous foul and somebody’s going to keep doing a dangerous action,” Dean said.

“We should start taking points by them doing that action before it actually happens to hurt somebody.

“The other thing about MMA is, I mean, we have a one-point sport,” Dean added.

“The majority of three-round fights, what’s the score? 29-28.

“So you take one point, you’ve taken a majority of wins and turned it into a draw. But we’re going to have to do something, so that’s one of the things we’ve thought about that we’re going to be doing.