Howard Webb admits VAR should have intervened to award Nottingham Forest penalty against Everton

The refereeing chief Howard Webb admits VAR should have intervened to recommend that Nottingham Forest be awarded a penalty during their defeat to Everton.

Forest were left furious at having three credible appeals for a spot-kick turned down.

They went on to lose the game 2-0 courtesy of strikes from Idrissa Gueye and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and currently sit just one point above the relegation zone.

But the club sparked controversy after the game when appearing to question the integrity of the officials on social media, stating: "Our patience has been tested multiple times".

Speaking on the latest episode of Match Officials Mic'd Up, Webb, the chief refereeing officer for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), concedes that Ashley Young's challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi should have been more closely reviewed.

“The referee waves away the penalty appeal,” he said. “We did hear Anthony Taylor in the footage say that he believed the ball had been played by Ashley Young, and we know that’s not the case.

“We know only Callum Hudson-Odoi touches the ball. The VAR looks at it and asks himself the question, ‘Was the non-award clearly and obviously wrong?’ and came to the conclusion it wasn’t.

“You hear him describing two players tussling for the ball. He doesn’t see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.

“We would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgement in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would’ve happened."

“The game is played by human beings, it’s officiated by human beings,” he added. “Our job is to try to ensure that we have a positive impact on the game by identifying correct decisions on the field.

“This wasn’t one. When that doesn’t happen, the VAR consistently recognises when an error has happened on the field and steps in.

“But of course they’re humans making judgements as well so we always are trying to reduce the number of errors that we make."

Forest were also left seething at hand-ball appeal against Young going unpunished, as well as a challenge from the former England international on Giovanni Reyna.

But Webb believes both decisions are open to interpretation, so VAR were right not to intervene.

“We felt (they) were really subjective calls," he continued. “The first one involving some contact from Ashley Young on Gio Reyna. There was contact. The referee saw that but didn’t feel it was impactful enough to penalise.

“We’ve set quite a high threshold for penalising contact all over the field really, but also in the penalty area. It’s what the game has asked us to do.

“Not every single contact is a foul and this was one where there was quite minimal contact, consistent with other situations that we’ve waved away this season. The VAR quite rightly checked that one.

“The second one was a handball penalty situation. Ashley Young involved again. The ball hits his arm.

“He’s moving as he tries to close a shot down from short distance and the referee deemed that the arm was in a natural position and the VAR check completed that one as well – quite understandably, in this subjective zone of handball. We thought both of those situations were in line with our expectations.”

Meanwhile, Webb has also discussed the introduction of semi-automated offside decisions being used in the Premier League.

The technology is already used in Serie A, while it will be introduced in La Liga next season.

In England, it is hoped the system will be ready to use at some point next autumn.

Webb added: "At the moment we’re using software, dropping lines from players’ body positions, which takes time to do in a diligent way. Semi-automated offsides will speed that process up.”

- - -

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.