2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (James Quinlan)
PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb has praised the application of VAR by officials awarding the penalty that allowed Fulham to inflict Nottingham Forest's only loss of the season so far. Nuno Espirito Santo and his men have created a much more positive atmosphere around the City Ground in the opening weeks of the 2024/25 campaign. Heading into the second international break Forest are as mid-table as anyone can possibly be, sitting 10th, with the only true negative point the fact they lost their unbeaten status at the end of last month .
Fulham were the visitors in the East Midlands and after Chris Wood saw a goal ruled out for offside, Raul Jimenez bagged what would turn out to be the winning goal from the penalty spot. Defender Murillo was penalised with a yellow card for a foul on Andreas Pereira after referee Josh Smith was referred to the pitchside monitor. Now, as part of the Premier League's Match Officials Mic'd Up programme, the full transcript of the officials' discussion that resulted in the awarding of the penalty kick, and ultimately Forest's only defeat, has been released: The audio starts during the live event taking place.
.. Josh Smith (Referee): "On-field decision is play on but I can't see it.
" John Brooks (VAR): "Just checking possible penalty, just checking possible penalty. Okay, what's the extent of the contact there? Just delay, delay. We're trying to find an angle of the contact.
" Ian Hussin (Assistant VAR): "He [Pereira] is holding the back of his ankle." John Brooks (VAR): "Yeah, so the player's running. The ball is not actually under control.
Have you got a better angle?" Upon request the camera angle switches to a low view horizontal to the 18-yard box...
John Brooks (VAR): "He clearly stamps on the back of his Achilles. It's just whether that contact is a penalty, bearing in mind the ball is not under control." Ian Hussin (Assistant VAR): "The ball is going to him.
" John Brooks (VAR): "The ball is going to go to him. It is a total accident but he has impeded his opponent. So the question is whether that contact.
.. I mean, he's clearly flush standing studs on the back of the Achilles.
" Ian Hussin (Assistant VAR): "He's stood on the back of his ankle, yeah." John Brooks (VAR): "I think he's clearly impeded the opponent and the referee's got no view of it, so there's no referee's call of it." Ian Hussin (Assistant VAR): "Yeah, and his foot is sort of stuck in the ground because of that as well, so he can't move.
" John Brooks (VAR): "Josh, just standby. We are going to be checking an APP (Attacking Possession Phase) and recommending a review. Just standby.
" John Brooks (VAR): "Yeah, so he's clearly onside and there's nothing else to see. Okay Josh, I am going to recommend an on-field review for a potential penalty. If you just make your way to the screen, I'll explain what we're seeing.
" On-field referee Smith is now in place at his screen...
John Brooks (VAR): "So Josh, I'm going to pause it on the point of contact and the defender has essentially, accidentally, rakes his studs down the back of the Achilles of the attacker, which would be significantly painful and the ball is going to him in the dropping zone, so we'll just loop it through for you." Josh Smith (Referee): "So I'm seeing he steps on the back of his heel as he comes across. Yes, he accidentally rakes down the heel, so I'm thinking restart is going to be a penalty kick and a yellow card for reckless.
" John Brooks (VAR): "Yeah, due to the defender's reckless." Josh Smith (Referee): "Due to the nature of the contact on the back of his foot, yeah. I'm confirming restart, penalty kick and yellow card, red five [Murillo].
" John Brooks (VAR): "Confirmed." As Forest supporters will be well aware from previous run-ins , part of his policy of transparency means PGMOL chief Webb appears on the Mic'd Up show to openly discuss the successes and failures of VAR processes, then what will be done to rectify the latter. In this case he commended the deliberation of Smith and Brooks to reach their decision in light of what VAR was introduced to fix - on-field incidents that go unseen in real time by the referee.
Webb explained: "Primarily the VAR is looking at the images and making a judgement as to whether the outcome is clearly wrong but in this case you hear the referee Josh Smith say 'I've not seen it'. It's a really difficult contact to see - that lower body contact from Murillo and Pereira's heel. "You tend to be looking at the upper body as a referee - when the ball's coming in you're looking for the push, a nudge from behind.
There is some contact on the upper body on this one on Pereira, it's not enough for a penalty. "It's not enough for VAR to get involved, but VAR sees that there is clear evidence of proper contact on the back of the heel and that's very impactful. You can see the player jumps up in pain, the ball's dropping right into that place, we've talked about impact [on play].
Here he doesn't - he can't - hit the ball because he's in pain from this very clear contact. "When the VAR sees that knowing the referee hasn't made a judgement on it, it's quite an easy intervention, quite a clear intervention, a good use of VAR to give the referee a view of what he wasn't able to see on the field.".
