Howard Webb defends Premier League refereeing standards

Author: BBC Sport

Getty ImagesSean KearnsBBC Sport

• 1 hour ago

Referees’ chief Howard Webb says football is “officiated by human beings” who are “making judgements” as he reviewed several key penalty decisions across recent Premier League games.

Nottingham Forest issued a furious post on social media after being denied three penalties in their 2-0 loss to Everton earlier this month, alleging the video assistant referee (VAR) in charge Stuart Attwell was a fan of relegation rivals Luton.

That statement and other interviews given by the club prompted FA and Premier League investigations. Forest also requested the audio between officials.

It’s the second time this season that PGMOL have been asked to make their officials’ audio public, with Liverpool doing the same after Luis Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal against Tottenham in September.

Reviewing incidents across the last five match weeks on Sky Sports’ Mic’d Up, Webb said:

• Referee Michael Oliver “will be disappointed” to have missed Declan Rice’s foul on Ben Davies during Arsenal’s 3-2 win against Tottenham on Sunday. VAR intervened to indicate a “clear and obvious” error was made to send Oliver to the monitor. A penalty was given after review.

• Andre Onana’s challenge on Zeki Amdouni during Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday was “reckless” and the referee should have given a penalty, before VAR correctly intervened.

• VAR should have intervened to send the referee to the pitchside monitor after Ashley Young’s challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi during Everton’s 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest on 21 April.

• Tony Harrington was correct to disallow Max Kilman’s late goal in Wolves’ 2-1 defeat to West Ham because Tawanda Chirewa purposely “positions himself” in an offside position to obstruct the goalkeeper’s view. Wolves boss Gary O’Neil called it “possibly the worst decision I have ever seen” and was charged by the FA.

• Andy Madley was right to stick with his initial on-field decision after VAR asked him to review a potential penalty following Yoane Wissa’s challenge on Lewis Dunk during Brentford’s draw with Brighton on 3 April.

Webb was reflecting on the fallout around the Forest decisions, in which he agreed with an earlier independent panel that only the third Ashley Young challenge should have been penalised.

“The game is played by human beings, it’s officiated by human beings,” said Webb. “And obviously 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.

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

Oliver ‘one of our top referees’

Webb defended Oliver after the referee’s performance during the north London derby on Sunday.

Oliver waved play on after Rice’s challenge on Davies in the penalty area, despite being “in a great position to see” the incident, but VAR advised him to pause the game in order to send him to the monitor to review the incident. A penalty was given to Spurs after a review.

“I know Michael [Oliver] will be really disappointed,” added Webb.

“He had a really good game. He’s one of our top referees and one of the top referees in the world.”

Webb says VAR’s intervention was “nice and efficient” and that without the use of technology a clear penalty would have been missed.

Oliver has been selected as one of England’s referees for Euro 2024 this summer.

Onana penalty ‘shows referees learning’

Manchester United conceded a late equaliser to Burnley at Old Trafford on Saturday after VAR sent John Brooks to review Onana’s challenge on Amdouni.

VAR suggested Brooks had missed the goalkeeper’s challenge on the Burnley forward and the referee agreed by awarding the Clarets a penalty.

Webb said it was a “clear error not to award a penalty kick” and that VAR was right to intervene.

Webb said the incident was “very similar” to one involving Onana on the opening weekend of the season and proof that officials are learning from their mistakes.

On that occasion, VAR failed to intervene when Onana collided into Sasa Kalajdzic during United’s 1-0 win against Wolves.

Webb contacted Wolves at the time to apologise for the incident.

“When we make an error, we look at why and what we can do better,” said Webb.

Premier League ‘looking at stadium announcements’

One of the main criticisms of VAR is the experience of supporters in stadiums, with fans often left in the dark while a decision is being made or reviewed.

During the 2023 women’s World Cup, referees explained their decisions to supporters over the tannoy once they had been to the pitchside monitor.

Webb says the Premier League is looking at ways to improve the experience for supporters in stadiums, including in-stadium announcements.

“We’re looking at it and keeping an open mind about whether that’s something we could utilise in the Premier League,” he said.

Semi-automated offsides will be used in the Premier League next season for the first time, with the technology expected to be introduced in the autumn after the season has started.

The technology, which uses optical player tracking, will provide quicker and more consistent placement of the virtual offside line for VAR officials.

While Webb says the current model of drawing lines for offside will be used for VAR in specific cases, he says semi-automated offsides will speed up decision-making in the majority of cases.

“It will make us quicker in a lot of situations involving tight offsides,” added Webb.

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