Howard Webb has reportedly agreed that West Ham were wrongfully awarded a penalty against Manchester United.
VAR was meant to bring clarity and minimise errors on the pitch; if anything it’s done the opposite. Every single team in the Premier League has had a poor decision go against them with a VAR screw up, and West Ham have certainly had their fair share.
Despite them having worse decisions go against them, pundits like Gary Neville have fumed over the decision to award West Ham a penalty against Manchester United with some claiming it’s the single worst decision they’ve seen.
While it’s a ludicrous opinion, there’s no denying that it was a rather soft penalty (although the contact on the lower leg does mean there is some debate to be had).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb has agreed that this was the wrong decision, The Times report.
It’s expected that he will discuss the incident during the international break on the “mic’d up” show. It will be intriguing to hear the dialogue between Cootes, the referee of the game, and the VAR team to see if their logic does actually make some sense.
Ultimately, it’s done and dusted. Both teams will almost definitely have poor decisions go the other way this season, which should balance things out in the long run.