The head of the referees’ body, Howard Webb, has said the decision to disallow a Josh King goal for Fulham in their 2 0 defeat at Chelsea was wrong.
The video assistant referee intervened to rule out the 18 year old midfielder’s effort after a check for a foul by Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz on Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah in the build up.
Webb stated the officials made a mistake. He said, “It wasn’t controversial, it was wrong. We’ve established a high bar for intervention with VAR. In this situation, that guidance wasn’t followed properly.”
He explained that the officials became “super focused” on the contact without considering the full context of how it happened. Fulham manager Marco Silva had labelled the decision “unbelievable” after the match.
The fallout from the incident saw the VAR official for the fixture, Michael Salisbury, stood down for Sunday’s match between Liverpool and Arsenal. VAR has faced increased scrutiny early in the new season.
