Howard Webb admits Nottingham Forest should have been awarded a penalty against Everton when VAR audio was released

Howard Webb admitted Nottingham Forest should have been awarded a penalty against Everton.

Forest issued a statement after their 2-0 defeat to Everton to complain about the rejection of three penalty appeals.

They said they had “warned” refereeing body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) that VAR Stuart Attwell was supporting relegation rivals Luton, but the PGMOL failed to act.

In the latest edition of Match Officials Mic'd Up, Webb reviewed the decisions from that match.

Webb said: “That was the case, mainly around three penalty decisions. Nottingham Forest thought three situations should have led to penalty kicks being awarded to them. We'll talk about the third of them in a moment.

“The first two we felt were really subjective decisions. The first involved some contact from Ashley Young on Gio Reyna. There was contact. The referee saw it but didn't feel it was impactful enough to give a penalty. We've set a great high threshold for penalizing contact all over the field, but also in the penalty area, is what the game asks us to do.

“Not all contact is a foul and in this case there was minimal contact, in line with other situations we have ruled out this season. The VAR rightly reviewed that situation.

“The second was a penalty situation for handball. Ashley Young intervened again. The ball hit her arm. She moves while trying to close a shot from close range and the referee considered that her arm was in a natural position and the VAR reviewed. I also completed it, and it is understandable in this subjective area of ​​​​handball. So we thought that both situations were in line with our expectations.”

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In the second half, Bosque He asked for a penalty for the third time when Hudson-Odoi was brought down by Young inside the Everton area, but the referee waved play on.

Of this incident, Webb said: “I understand why we would have preferred intervention in this situation. The referee rejects the penalty appeal.

“The VAR looks at it and asks: 'Was the non-concession clearly and evidently incorrect?' and he concluded that no. He is heard describing two players fighting over the ball. He does not see a clear action by Young that he considers worthy of intervention, that reaches the threshold of being very clear.

“But we would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgment for himself in this situation and we probably would have had a different result if that had happened.”

You can listen to the audio of the incidents in the Premier League website here.