Fulham and Wolves are latest victims of errors by VAR in the Premier League, following a review by the Key Match Incidents panel, Mirror reports.
The decision to rule out Josh King’s goal against Chelsea and the denial of a penalty after Everton star Iliman Ndiaye fouled Hugo Bueno have both been identified by the five-member team.
The panel reviews the major refereeing decisions in the Premier League each week, with the two errors noted the most egregious on this occasion.
They agreed that video assistant referee Michael Salisbury was incorrect to intervene at Stamford Bridge by highlighting Rodrigo Muniz stepping on Trevoh Chalobah.
They also noted that referee Rob Jones was incorrect to disallow the goal. They wrote: “The panel unanimously supported the original on-field call to allow play to continue and award the goal.”
The panel further then acknowledged that Wolves should have been awarded a spotkick in defeat to Everton. However, only three of the five members of the panel identified VAR Craig Pawson’s decision not to intervene as an error.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb had already blasted the decision to deny Fulham’s goal. “It wasn’t controversial, it was wrong,” he said on Match Officials Mic’d Up.
“We’ve established some principles in terms of how we officiate in the Premier League and how we use VAR. They sit around a high threshold for penalising contact – it aids the flow and rhythm and tempo of the game.
“We’ve also established a high bar for intervention with VAR. In other words, if situations are not clearly wrong and the referee has made a call on the field, that call will stand, or at least should stand. And that’s the message that we give to all of our VARs, particularly when we come to taking away goals that are so obviously such a crucial moment in the game.
“We should only be taking goals away when the evidence is very clear that that’s the only thing we can do and that’s the guidance we give to our officials.”