Howard Webb has now shared his view on Crystal Palace’s penalty situation over the weekend against Liverpool.
On Saturday at Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace blew a one-goal lead however the goal came from a controversial penalty.
Palace forward Jean-Philippe Mateta was caught inside the area by Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah which wasn’t immediately given.
Referee Andy Madley waved for play-on before he was advised to go to the on-field monitor to evaluate where he changed his call and awarded the penalty.
Now the chief operating officer at PGMOL, Howard Web has given his verdict.
Webb on Jean-Philippe Mateta penalty
Webb was analysing the key incidents from the past three game weeks on Mic’d Up, via the Premier League website. Here is what he had to say about Mateta’s penalty call.
“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.”
VAR gets it right much to Crystal Palace’s delight
At the time, the penalty and resulting goal felt invaluable to Roy Hodgson and Palace after such a woeful run of form.
However, fast forward to the 90th minute and it seemed rather inconsequential and did little but make the scoreline respectable.
Now, the daunting prospect of facing the treble winners awaits with Hodgson in desperate need of something from the game as patience grows thing.
