Howard Webb, PGMOL and the Premier League made the decision to open up discussions between the referee and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for key incidents.

In this latest instalment of “Match Officials Mic’d Up”, Howard Webb, chief operating officer at PGMOL, the organisation that oversees the League’s match officials, has discussed a number of recent incidents.

The idea is to go through the conversations between the match officials to give fans a 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.

Amongst the recent incidents that Howard Webb has dissected, is a much talked about one involving Newcastle United, from the defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday.

On-pitch referee Jarred Gillett gave a yellow card to Sven Botman for a challenge on Nicolas Jackson, with VAR Stuart Attwell seeing no reason to ask Gillett to review that decision and potentially change it to a red card.

Howard Webb on Match Officials Mic’d Up saying: “We’ve seen quite a lot of robust tackling in the Premier League. This weekend we saw quite a few examples of strong tackles going in; it’s part of the English game, the Premier League and what people like. We want to embrace that but we also have a responsibility to ensure players’ safety. Many of those situations that we’ve seen with those types of tackles are subjective – the referee’s having to make a determination in the moment on how much force is used and the nature of the tackle. We’ve really tried to encourage referees this season to make decisive on-field decisions, and in this situation we see the referee make a judgement on Joelinton’s tackle by playing advantage and then Botman comes in. he referee in the moment, on the ground, sees it as a reckless challenge – no doubt a high-end reckless challenge – as Botman comes in and gets a touch on the ball. There’s obviously some speed he comes in with. The VAR looks at that decision and tries to identify whether that was clearly wrong.”

Howard Webb going on to explain: “We don’t want the referee’s decision to be re-refereed by the VAR; we want the referee to have ownership of the decision and the VAR to only step in when there’s an element that’s clearly wrong. So if the VAR had seen strong stud contact from Botman’s extended leg into the ankle or shin of Jackson, or there had been a closing of the scissor, I think we’d have probably come out with a different outcome after the VAR had looked at it. But he doesn’t see that. He realises it’s subjective, and he allows it to stay on the field with the referee’s call standing. Equally, if that had been a red card, for sure it would’ve been check complete by the VAR as well. So, it’s a good example really of how the referee’s call is working in the Premier League this season. A lighter-touch approach: let the referees referee the decision and the VAR step in when there’s something clearly really wrong.”

So what did the match officials say?

VAR – Stuart Attwell: “I don’t like that. Right, so he hits the ball; he goes over the top of the ball. He doesn’t go studs into the leg, but he goes round it with a scissor challenge.”

Attwell watches multiple replays and asks the AVAR: “What are you thinking?”

Assistant VAR – Craig Taylor: “I think he plays the ball and there’s limited contact with the player’s leg.”

VAR: “It’s not with the studs, is it? It goes round him.”

AVAR: “It’s not with the studs. It’s not a clear point of contact.”

VAR: “There’s no secondary scissor action.”

VAR: “Jarred, confirming yellow card for Sven Botman and confirming yellow card for Joelinton. Two reckless tackles.”

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