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'Have a look at this' Howard Webb explains error in decision against Liverpool as VAR audio released





Howard Webb believes the right decision was made to award Crystal Palace a penalty against Liverpool, though has admitted the match officials should have stopped the game far sooner.


The incident was was reviewed as the match carried on following the incident, before play was eventually paused one minute and 45 seconds after the initial incident for referee Andy Madley to review the footage.



A check of the pitchside monitor from Madley followed and the eventual decision that followed was a penalty for Palace.


PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) chief Webb agreed with this call, but conceded there should not have been a near two-minute delay for action to be taken.





Webb:


"I think that’s a very clear penalty-kick situation.


"It was not seen by the on-field referee in real time, and the VAR’s there to check for that significant contact by Quansah into the back of Mateta, who’s the only one to touch the ball."


"Play continues, of course, because the referee waves away the penalty appeal. As the game’s continuing, the VAR is checking the angles available to see if there is that clear and obvious error, and recognises that there is one.


"You then hear him say to the referee, 'I’m checking the APP [attacking phase of play].' At that point, he’s already formed the opinion that he’s going to be sending the referee to the screen.



"But he needs to check the phase of play before the penalty to make sure that there’s no offside in the build-up, which would negate the award of the penalty, or another offence by the attacking team.


"I think a better way to do this would be to stop the game at that moment, as soon as the VARs recognise that a review is going to be needed for the penalty,"


"That stops anything else happening in the game, it gets us away from this feeling that it’s taking a long time to check this.


"And I think, going forward, that’s what we’d rather see – the game being stopped as soon as VAR recommends… or identifies a review is needed to be recommended.




"And then we send the referee to the screen while the APP’s being checked in that moment. It would make the process a bit more efficient.


"It’s described as significant contact in the calf by Quansah; it’s impactful. Mateta plays the ball, and yeah, a clear penalty, a clear and obvious error not to give the penalty.


"Sometimes, we’ll see contact less than that, that’s less impactful – it’s a bit of a sliding scale, but at some point, it’s going to be an offence, and this is certainly, in my opinion, one of those."


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