Referees chief says the sitation failed to meet the “high bar” set for VAR intervention
The head of England’s refereeing body PGMOL Howard Webb has acknowledged that Fulham were wrongly denied a goal in Saturday’s west London derby at Stamford Bridge, describing the decision as a “misjudgement” by the match officials.
Josh King thought he had scored his first Premier League goal for Fulham, only for it to be disallowed after referee Robert Jones was advised to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.
VAR Michael Salisbury had intervened on the basis that Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz stepped on the foot of Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah in the build-up.
Jones subsequently ruled the goal out, judging Muniz to have committed a foul. But Webb said the decision did not meet the threshold required for overturning an on-field call.
“It wasn’t controversial, it was wrong,” Webb said. “We’ve established some principles in terms of how we officiate in the Premier League and how we use VAR.
“They sit around a high threshold for penalising contact, aiding the flow, rhythm and tempo of the game. We’ve also established a high bar for intervention with VAR.
“In other words, if situations are not clearly wrong and the referee has made a call on the field, that call will stand or at least should stand.”
Salisbury was dropped from VAR duties for Liverpool’s match against Arsenal the following day, a decision viewed as an acknowledgement of error by PGMOL.
Webb explained that “there was a misjudgement by the officials involved” in the situation between Muniz and Chalobah.
Webb said: “[The contact] happens when Muniz is in possession of the ball, controls the ball, turns naturally and brings his foot down on to Chalobah, who’s moved his foot into a space which the Fulham player has the right to put his foot into in that normal way.”
