Howard Webb confirms key VAR rule change following series of errors

Howard Webb confirmed VAR would make a key change to its rules after a series of controversial decisions.

Sky Sports' Match Officials Mic'd Up, which is hosted by PGMOL boss Webb and Michael Owen, was introduced in May to display greater transparency around refereeing decisions.

And after the controversial award of a Newcastle penalty in a 2-2 draw with Wolves on 28 October, Webb said he is encouraging more dialogue between officials and VAR to define a “clear and obvious error”.

In the aforementioned game, the Magpies were given a spot kick after Hwang-Hee Chan was adjudged to have brought down Fabian Schar. Though, replays showed that the Wolves star pulled his foot away before making contact, the decision was not overturned.

Upon admitting the penalty should not have stood, Webb said: "We're asking the VARs, going forward with our instruction to have a look at it, to see where the considerations sit and if they don't like the decision on the field, ask the referee what they saw and if it's significantly different to what's been shown on the video, then recommend a review so that the referee can go to the screen and look at it again for himself.

“The starting point that the VAR thinks it's a clear error. In this situation the VAR didn't quite get there and in our opinion should have done. We think the high bar for intervention, which we apply, which UEFA apply as well, is good for consistency. There's a lot of subjective situations in our game which splits opinion."

Webb added that he did not want officials to rely too much on the technology.

He explained: “We don't want too much interference.

“We've seen negative comments about overinterference by VAR so by reserving it for clear situations, then we feel it serves the game best. Recognising those clear situations is important - it's where we put a lot of our time and effort into the training and this type of situation reaches that threshold, and that's the advice we've given to our VARs going forward."

Topics: Football, VAR, Premier League

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.