Howard Webb, the head of PGMOL, has admitted that Nottingham Forest was wronged in their recent Premier League match against Everton. The controversial 2-0 loss saw three penalty appeals dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor, causing frustration among the Forest players and staff. Despite strong objections from the club, the decisions made by Taylor and VAR Stuart Attwell were criticized for being “extremely poor”.
One such disputed decision involved a potential penalty when Everton’s Ashley Young appeared to trip Forest’s Callum Hudson-Odoi. Webb, in a recent episode of the Premier League’s Mic’d Up referee show, discussed the incident and the VAR process.
During the discussion, Webb explained that while VAR determined the non-award of a penalty was not clearly and obviously wrong, he personally would have preferred Taylor to review the incident on the pitch-side monitor. He believes that a different outcome may have been reached if the referee had taken a closer look at the play.
Despite the errors made in the match, Webb emphasized that referees and VAR officials are human and mistakes will happen. He highlighted the ongoing training and collaboration efforts aimed at reducing errors and improving decision-making on the field. Webb expressed a commitment to learning from each situation to minimize errors in the future.
