Referee Body Backs Atwell Decision To Allow Goal

Stuart Attwell was right to award
Liverpool their controversial
opening goal in Saturday's 2-2
draw against Sunderland,
refereeing chiefs said.
The Professional Game Match
Officials body, which provides
match officials for all matches in
the Premier League and Football
League, issued a statement after
Attwell faced criticism.
Attwell allowed Dirk Kuyt's
opening strike to count after
ruling Michael Turner had taken a
free-kick when he appeared to
roll it back to goalkeeper Simon
Mignolet. Fernando Torres
nipped in, raced through on goal
and played in Kuyt to score.
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce
said at his press conference: 'I've
been in enough trouble so I
don't want to talk about it but
you all witnessed it and he got it
wrong.'
However PGMO released a
statement clarifying their view of
the goal.
The statement read: 'PGMO has
reviewed the first goal scored
between Liverpool and
Sunderland and believe that the
correct decisions were made.
'According to the Laws of the
Game, having stopped the game
for any infringement the referee
is required to 'indicate the
restart of the match'.
'In practice, in the majority of
cases, referees indicate for the
re-start by gesturing to players to
take the kick. These gestures can
be minimal. For the more
important 'ceremonial' free-kicks,
which also involve control of the
defensive wall, referees can
indicate by using the whistle.
However, there is no
requirement by Law to use the
whistle to make the indication.
'The ball is then in play when it is
kicked and moves. So, in this
case, the ball was in play as soon
as it is kicked by a Sunderland
player.
'Also, the Laws state that the
free-kick must be taken from the
place where the infringement
occurred. Again, in this case, the
referee correctly determined that
the free-kick was played from the
right place.'