Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb has defended the decision not to send off Newcastle defender Sven Botman for a tackle on Aston Villa striker Nicolas Jackson, describing it as a “high-end reckless challenge” that was correctly punished with a yellow card.
Referee Jarred Gillett cautioned Botman for the 18th-minute foul on Saturday. Botman went in strongly and over the top of the ball, though he touched the ball and the contact on Jackson came from his trailing leg. Villa won the game 1-0 through a 36th-minute goal from Johan Manzambi.
VAR Stuart Attwell checked the incident and left the on-field call alone. He saw no “secondary scissor action” and contact that was “not with the studs”.
Jackson felt it deserved more. “I know the referee said yellow card but it was so high and hopefully maybe next time a red card, but it was a yellow,” he said after the game. “I nearly broke my leg, but anyway, it’s part of football.”
Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, Webb said robust tackling is part of the English game but referees have a responsibility to ensure players’ safety. He said the VAR’s job is to judge whether a decision is clearly wrong, not to re-referee it.
“If the VAR had seen strong stud contact from Botman’s extended leg into the ankle or shin of Jackson, or there had been a closing of the scissor, I think we’d have probably come out with a different outcome,” Webb said. He added that the VAR saw the challenge as subjective and let the referee’s call stand. Had Gillett shown red, Webb said, the VAR would have confirmed that too.
VAR stepping in more often, with fewer errors
Webb called the incident a good example of the “lighter-touch approach” this season, where referees make the decision and VAR intervenes only when something is clearly wrong.
After seven rounds there have been 21 VAR interventions, nine of them subjective. At the same stage last season there were three, none subjective. Errors have fallen sharply relative to that rise. The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel has ruled one intervention wrong this season, Manchester City‘s offside-affected winning goal at Manchester United. It also found one missed penalty for Arsenal at Aston Villa. After seven rounds last season, there were four errors for missed interventions.
Source: BBC Sport
