Howard Webb urges VAR to intervene on soft penalties

VAR officials in England have been urged to speak out on ‘soft’ penalties, by encouraging referees to review their decision even if an error is not “clear and obvious”.

The new advice from the referees’ chief, Howard Webb, follows a succession of controversial penalty incidents in the Premier League and Europe.

It is understood that video referees were told on Wednesday by Webb, the chief refereeing officer of PGMOL, they should feel able to draw a referee’s attention to penalty decisions made after challenges that involve only minimal contact.

Recent examples of such incidents involve penalties awarded against Wolves in two matches, against Newcastle and Sheffield United, with the former resulting in the demotion of the referee Anthony Taylor to the Championship for a game week.

The Wolves manager, Gary O’Neil, suggested the game was in a “crazy place” when he described the penalty that led to Sheffield United grabbing a late 2-1 win over his team at Bramall Lane this month, after a challenge by the forward Fábio Silva on George Baldock.

“Fábio’s shinpad probably grazes Baldock’s calf,” O’Neil said. “I’ve watched it loads of times and there’s minimal contact and if we’re giving fouls for that, there would have been a million fouls in that football match.

"I’m honestly lost, I don’t know where to go with it. I’m told to go in and have a sensible conversation, but he still watched it telling me it’s a penalty, which tells me we’re in a crazy place.”

The new recommendations were made at a meeting of referees and officials in Loughborough. Interaction between managers and officials was also on the agenda, with referees reminded of the importance of issuing yellow cards for dissent after a sharp increase in the number of