PGMOL finally release Nottingham Forest VAR audio as Howard Webb states one penalty should have been given

The PGMOL have released the VAR audio from Everton's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest at Goodison Park after a formal request from the away side.

Forest were denied three penalty appeals in the 2-0 defeat by referee Anthony Taylor, with all three incidents involving Toffees defender Ashley Young.

Upon reviewing the incidents, VAR decided not to recommend a reversal of Taylor's decision on any of the three occasions.

Forest then took the extraordinary step of publicly calling out the PGMOL on X (Twitter), stating they had told the refereeing body pre-match that the VAR official for the game, Stuart Attwell, was a fan of relegation rivals Luton Town.

The club's refereeing consultant, Mark Clattenburg, also criticised the decisions, calling them a 'hat-trick of howlers' and 'mind-boggling to watch'.

However, he did not go as far as questioning the integrity of Attwell, who has officiated in the Premier League since 2016 and had a previous spell in the league between 2008 and 2012.

Forest then requested that the PGMOL publicly release the audio recordings between officials during the game, with that audio to be centred around the three key penalty appeals.

The club's reasoning for the release was 'for full transparency, ensuring the integrity of our sport is upheld'.

PGMOL then confirmed that the audio would be released as part of the latest edition of 'Match Officials Mic'd Up', the monthly show broadcast by the Premier League which analyses key refereeing decisions.

Now, the show, which is co-hosted by PGMOL chief Howard Webb, has now broadcast the audio.

And Webb has stated that one decision - not to award Forest a penalty for a foul by Ashley Young on Callum Hudson-Odoi - was retrospectively the wrong one.

Attwell decided that there was a 'mutual engagement' between Young and Hudson-Odoi before the playing of the ball - and determined there was 'no clear action' by Young with 'a degree of normal contact'.

🚨 BREAKING: Howard Webb, head of Premier League referees, admits Nottingham Forest should have been awarded a penalty in their controversial game against Everton pic.twitter.com/XkVxO4UlZJ

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 30, 2024

After the clips were shown, Webb stated: "We would have preferred an intervention on this situation.

"The referee waves away the penalty appeal, and the VAR looks at it and asks himself whether the award was clearly and obviously wrong. He came to the conclusion it wasn't.

"He doesn't see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, or one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.

"But we would have preferred intervention, for the referee to go to the monitor and make a judgment for himself in that situation. We would probably have come out with a different outcome had that happened."

On the other penalty appeals, Webb believed that Young's arm was in a 'natural position' for the handball appeal, and that the ball was too close to Young for it to be given as a penalty.

The first appeal, which saw Young bring down Gio Reyna, Webb said that while there was contact, there was not sufficient contact to award a penalty.