PGMOL and the Premier League are opening up discussions between the referee and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for key incidents this season. In the latest instalment of "Match Officials Mic'd Up" in 2024/25, Howard Webb, chief operating officer at PGMOL, discusses five recent incidents.
Webb and Michael Owen go through the conversations between the match officials to give fans greater knowledge of how decisions are made. The officials on the pitch do not hear all the conversations from the VAR hub in Stockley Park.
The incidents covered are:
- Everton's penalty appeal v Newcastle
- Newcastle's penalty v Man City
- Arsenal's overturned goal v Leicester
- Fulham's penalty v Nott'm Forest
- Fernandes' red card v Spurs
- Palace's penalty appeal v Liverpool
Everton's penalty appeal against Newcastle
Incident: Everton forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin goes down following a challenge from Newcastle United's Dan Burn.
What the match officials did: Referee Craig Pawson does not award a penalty to Everton. VAR officials Chris Kavanagh and Harry Lennard back up Pawson's decision and say that Calvert-Lewin kicks Burn's calf.
Webb: "I don't think it's a penalty either. I think it's a really good on-field judgment as well. We see that Nick Pope makes a save and the ball rebounds and then two players, Calvert-Lewin and Burn, are moving towards that loose ball.
"Importantly, Burn moves in a straight line in a normal way and gets his foot in front of Calvert-Lewin. He doesn't deviate his foot into Calvert-Lewin or move towards him in that way.
"Of course we see Calvert-Lewin then swinging to take a shot and making contact with Burn from behind, but Burn's foot is already there in a pretty normal way so I don't think it's a foul by Burn and I think it's all a normal coming-together between the two players and a good judgment on the field."
Newcastle's penalty against Man City
Incident: Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon is brought down in the penalty area by Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson.
What the match officials did: Referee Jarred Gillett awards a penalty to Newcastle and issues a yellow card to Ederson for denial of a goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO). After review, the VAR confirms the on-field decision.
Webb: "On balance yes [it was a penalty], but it’s the archetypal 'referee’s call' because I can see how this could go either way on the field. When a goalkeeper goes to ground, doesn’t play the ball and there’s contact, I think the goalkeeper is asking for trouble.
"There is certainly contact in this situation, Gordon doesn’t seek the contact, he doesn’t extend his foot out to the right to make the contact, maybe he lets it happen. He’s moving at pace and it only takes a little bit of contact I guess to cause you to lose your balance, with exaggeration as well.
"But for sure there is only one player playing the ball and the contact is created because Ederson goes into the path of Gordon."
Arsenal's overturned goal v Leicester
Incident: Kai Havertz scores against Leicester City but the goal is ruled out for offside because the assistant referee believes an Arsenal player passes the ball to him.
What the match officials did: The goal is ruled out on-field, but after review the VAR officials Paul Tierney and Sian Massey-Ellis declare that Leicester's James Justin plays the ball to Havertz and is then therefore not in an offside position. After review, referee Sam Barrott awards a goal to Arsenal.
Webb: "It shows the benefits of having VAR doesn't it, that we can rectify this clear and obvious error. The on-field officials feel it's been played by an attacking player to Havertz but when you watch it back, it's not, it's actually played by James Justin, the defender, and therefore very quickly, efficiently we can step in and we can give the goal back.
"It's a really good demonstration I suppose of the benefit of VAR which doesn't only take goals away but sometimes give them back."
Fulham's penalty against Nott'm Forest
Incident: Fulham's Andreas Pereira goes down in the penalty area following a challenge from Nottingham Forest centre-back Murillo.
What the match officials did: Referee Josh Smith is unable to get a clear view of the incident and allows play to carry on. Once the ball goes out of play VAR official John Brooks tells Smith to delay the restart. Brooks spots that Murillo stands on the back of Pereira's Achilles and recommends that Smith reviews the incident in the Referee Review Area (RRA). After review Smith awards a penalty to Fulham and issues Murillo a yellow card.
Webb: "The VAR sees that there's clear evidence of contact on the back of the heel which is very impactful and you can see that the player [Pereira] jumps up in pain.
"It's a careless collision and [Murillo] doesn't mean to do it, but he does it and it has an impact on Pereira's ability to head the ball. So therefore we would get involved here."
Fernandes' red card against Spurs
Incident: Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes is shown a straight red card for a late tackle on Tottenham Hotspur’s James Maddison.
What the match officials did: Referee Chris Kavanagh sends Fernandes off and, after review, the VAR confirms the on-field decision.
Fernandes’ red card is later overturned following a successful appeal.
Webb: "The red card was correctly overturned on appeal. We hear on the audio the assistant referee coming with the information around this being from his position, a red-card offence and the referee takes his advice and issues the red.
"When you look back on the footage, you see that the contact is high and Bruno Fernandes slips first and puts his foot out to stop Maddison. It’s not an attempt for the ball, from the assistant referee’s position - he’s got a good view, a nice open view, a better viewing angle then what the referee has got. [It] looks like there are studs there going into the shin and if there is it would be a red card but it’s just a slight mis-read.
"When the VAR checks it, he forms the opinion that the 'referee’s call' is not clearly wrong because he sees the action with the high contact, no attempt to play the ball, with some force and therefore decides in his professional judgment that the 'referee’s call' is not clearly wrong."
Palace's penalty appeal against Liverpool
Incident: Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk has a hold of Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi from a corner.
What the match officials did: VAR official David Coote spots that Van Dijk has a hold of Guehi's arm but believes it has no impact on the Palace defender reaching the ball and the play is resumed.
Webb: "In this case we see an action by Van Dijk that is very quick, particularly at full speed and the ball is always going towards the goalkeeper.
"We don't think that the action really impacts Guehi's ability to get to the ball. The referee saw it that way, didn't penalise [Van Dijk] and when the VAR checked it, they saw it in the same way and cleared it for what it was, a very quick holding that didn't impact Guehi's ability to play the ball."
"If you look at the [incident] at 50 per cent [speed], of course it's going to double the amount of time the holding happens and if you put it at 25 per cent, it makes it four times as long and of course it can look a lot more impactful as well."
No handballs for penalties this season
This season there hasn't been a penalty awarded in 70 matches as Webb explains why spot-kicks have not been awarded for this reason by the officials.
Webb: "We consulted with lots of stakeholders in the game during the latter part of last season and the message we were being given is that there's clearly too many handball penalties being given in the English game in the Premier League for situations where players are playing fairly normally and naturally [where] we know players' arms move.
"So we said to the officials [to] look out for those situations where a player either deliberately handles the ball or has an arm that's well away from the body.
"We've seen situation where the balls hit the arm in the penalty area this season, but the referees applied what we asked them to do and they've stepped away in terms of handball unless it's deliberate or very clearly unjustifiable."
Glossary of terms
VAR: Video Assistant Referee; AVAR: Assistant Video Assistant Referee; RO: replay operator; APP: attacking phase of play.
UK users can watch the whole "Match Officials Mic'd Up" video on Sky Sports and TNT Sports. International users can access the full video with their local rights-holder.