Howard Webb admits VAR mistake in Chelsea-Fulham disallowed goal | OneFootball

Howard Webb has admitted Fulham were wrongly denied a goal against Chelsea, describing the decision as a ‘misjudgment’ by the officials involved.

Josh King thought he had scored his first Premier League goal in Saturday’s derby at Stamford Bridge, only for the strike to be disallowed after a VAR review.

Referee Robert Jones was sent to the pitchside monitor by Michael Salisbury, who advised that Rodrigo Muniz had fouled Trevoh Chalobah in the build-up.

Muniz was ruled to have stepped on Chalobah’s foot before King converted. The call sparked debate, with many replays showing minimal contact and little justification to overturn the original decision.

Salisbury was subsequently removed from VAR duties for Liverpool’s clash with Arsenal the following day.

Webb, speaking on the Premier League’s ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’ programme, accepted the wrong call had been made.

“It wasn’t controversial, it was wrong,” Webb said. “We’ve established principles around a high threshold for penalising contact and a high bar for VAR involvement.”

He explained that the referee’s on-field decision should stand unless there is clear evidence of a mistake.

“If a situation is not clearly wrong, the referee’s call should stand,” Webb added. “That’s especially important when it comes to goals, because taking a goal away is such a significant moment.”

The PGMOL chief felt the officials became too narrowly focused on the contact and failed to assess the full context of the challenge.

“In this case, that guidance wasn’t followed properly,” he said. “There was a misjudgment about how that contact happened between Muniz and Chalobah.”

The incident followed another VAR ruling that went Chelsea’s way at Stamford Bridge earlier this month.

On that occasion, Eberechi Eze’s free-kick for Crystal Palace was ruled out after Marc Guehi was deemed to have interfered with the wall.

The use of VAR has faced mounting criticism, with Burnley manager Scott Parker claiming at the weekend that the technology is threatening to turn football into ‘the most sterile game there is’.

Webb defended the system but acknowledged that errors of this kind damage trust.

“We’ve done really well in the last 18 months to reduce unnecessary involvement,” he said. “The Premier League has had fewer interventions than any other major European league.

“But we understand the importance of these decisions. When we get it wrong, like we did here, the impact is significant. We are always striving to do better.”