Nottingham Forest had three separate penalty appeals dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor during their 2-0 loss at Everton, with the on-field decisions endorsed by VAR Stuart Attwell; Watch Match Officials Mic'd Up tonight on Sky Sports Premier League at 7pm
Wednesday 1 May 2024 06:14, UK
PGMOL chief Howard Webb says Nottingham Forest would likely have been awarded one penalty in their controversial 2-0 defeat at Everton.
Forest had three separate penalty appeals dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor during the match with the on-field decisions endorsed by VAR Stuart Attwell.
However, speaking on Match Officials Mic'd Up, which airs tonight on Sky Sports Premier League at 7pm, Webb said Ashley Young's tackle on Callum Hudson-Odoi should have seen referee Taylor sent to the pitchside monitor.
"We would have preferred an intervention on this situation for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgement for himself in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would have happened."
On the other two incidents, Webb said: "The first two we felt were really subjective calls. The first one involved some contact from Ashley Young on Gio Reyna. There was contact, the referee saw that. We didn't feel it was impactful enough to penalise…this was one where there was minimal contact.
"The second one was a handball penalty situation. The ball hits Ashley Young's arm, he's moving as he tries to close a cross down from short distance and the referee deemed that the arm was in a natural position and the VAR check completed that. We thought that both of those situations were in line with our expectations."
Forest released a statement afterwards accusing Attwell of being a Luton fan, saying they had "warned" the PGMOL before the match over the issue and said the club would "consider its options".
The club then made a formal request to the PGMOL for the VAR audio to be released publicly while The Football Association announced it had "formally requested observations" from Forest, boss Nuno Espirito Santo, full-back Neco Williams and referee analyst Mark Clattenburg following their comments.
The Premier League said it would also be investigating the matter, having been "extremely disappointed" to read Forest's post-match comments, adding that it is "never appropriate to improperly question the integrity of match officials".
Forest responded by calling for the PGMOL to "amend its rule on allegiances to account for contextual rivalries in the league table, not just local rivalries".
Former Premier League referee Clattenburg, who works as a consultant for Forest, labelled the penalty decisions as "a joke" in his column in the Daily Mail and repeated Forest's assertion that "a Luton fan such as Attwell" should not have been involved in the game.
Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett:
"In the first two incidents we don't hear the audio from the match officials or see them. The first incident was Ashley Young and his challenge on Giovanni Reyna. Howard Webb explains as far as he is concerned, yes there was contact, but there wasn't sufficient contact to warrant a penalty.
"They are satisfied that one was not a penalty, that the PGMOL officials followed the procedures correctly and they came to the right decision.
"They felt the same for the second penalty claim for Nottingham Forest, which was a handball involving Ashley Young when Callum Hudson Odoi plays it against Ashley Young and it hits him on the arm.
"Again Howard Webb says he felt Ashley Young's arms were in a natural position. That's subjective and I think Forest fans might have a different view on that potentially. But also he points out that he was very close to the ball - I think we can agree on that one - and as such didn't have time to react. He was satisfied that the procedure was followed correctly and it was not a penalty.
"By the way, there is something called the Key Match Incidents Panel, which analyses every big incident in every game, every week. Now this hasn't been made public, but my understanding is that the panel - which is made up of former players and former managers and coaches - agrees with the PGMOL here that neither of those two incidents should have been a penalty.
"But the third incident, Howard Webb accepts they got wrong. They feel Anthony Taylor made a mistake by saying he thought Ashley Young had played the ball. And the bigger mistake was Stuart Attwell in not overturning it and accepting that the referee hadn't seen it correctly and that Ashley Young hadn't actually made contact with the ball, and at the very least asked him to go to the big screen.
"So that's Howard Webb, the head of English referees, pretty much admitting that his guys got it wrong."
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