Disallowing Fulham's opening goal at Chelsea was 'wrong' decision, admits PGMOL chief Howard Webb after Premier League VAR controversy
Published 03/09/2025 at 12:07 GMT+1
Howard Webb, chief of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), said disallowing Josh King's opening goal for Fulham at Chelsea on Saturday was the "wrong" decision, adding that "guidance wasn't followed properly" regarding the intervention of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Goals from Joao Pedro and Enzo Fernandez either side of half-time saw Chelsea win 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.
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The decision to disallow Fulham forward Josh King's opening goal at Chelsea was "wrong", Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) chief Howard Webb said on Tuesday.
In a highly-controversial west London derby, 18-year-old King was denied his maiden Premier League goal when Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Michael Salisbury sent referee Rob Jones to the pitchside monitor after what he felt was an infringement in the build-up by Rodrigo Muniz.
Replays showed the Brazilian forward stood on the foot of Trevoh Chalobah while completing a skill which saw him turn sharply with the ball, and the goal was overturned.
It was a decision which came under widespread criticism, with Fulham head coach Marco Silva lamenting it as "unbelievable".
Webb said that the intervention of VAR went against PGMOL guidance, and conceded the officials in charge did not take into account the "context" when evaluating the perceived foul committed by Muniz.
"It wasn't controversial, it was wrong," Webb said on Match Officials Mic'd Up.
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"We've established some principles in terms of how we officiate in the Premier League and how we use VAR. They sit around a high threshold for penalising contact - it aids the flow and rhythm and tempo of the game.
"We've also established a high bar for intervention with VAR. In other words, if situations are not clearly wrong and the referee has made a call on the field, that call will stand, or at least should stand.
"And that's the message that we give to all of our VARs, particularly when we come to taking away goals that are so obviously such a crucial moment in the game.
"We should only be taking goals away when the evidence is very clear that that's the only thing we can do and that's the guidance we give to our officials.
"In this situation, that guidance wasn't followed properly. There was a misjudgement by the officials involved in this situation about how that contact happened between Muniz and Chalobah.
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"The officials got super focused on that contact without looking at the full context of how it happened.
"It happens when Muniz is in possession of the ball, controls the ball, turns naturally and brings his foot down on to Chalobah who has moved his foot into a space which the Fulham player has the right to put his foot into in that normal way. So, a misjudgement by the officials."
TNT Sports football expert Joe Cole also heavily criticised the decision and said such interventions by VAR are "sanitising football".
"If we love football, we can't be stopping football for things like that on the halfway line," the former Chelsea player added.
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Webb said such mistakes by the officials are taken as "learning," and that it helps them to "look at what we can do better to ensure we reduce these to a minimum".
He added: "We've done really well in the last 18 months or so to reduce our involvement, with respect to the referee's call, almost all of the time in the right way and, as a result of that, we've seen less interventions in the Premier League than any other major league in Europe, so we need to continue doing that.
"We understand the importance of these decisions. We understand that, if we get it wrong like we did on this occasion, the impact is significant and we're always, always striving to do better."
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The lengthy pitchside review induced eight minutes of first-half stoppage time, and Chelsea opened the scoring seconds before the break, while Enzo Fernandez netted a controversial penalty in the second half to seal the win.
Ryan Sessegnon was adjudged to have handled the ball as he turned his back with his arms outstretched to make the block, with the decision deemed contentious due to a perceived handball from Joao Pedro in the build-up.
After the match, PGMOL removed Salisbury from VAR duties for Liverpool's 1-0 victory over Arsenal at Anfield.
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