The published VAR audio from Match Officials Mic’d Up makes clear why West Ham United’s late equaliser against Arsenal was ruled out. Referees\u2019 chief Howard Webb defended the outcome after a lengthy video check that examined multiple incidents in the penalty area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it a foul on the goalkeeper? Categorically yes,\u201d Webb told Match Officials Mic\u2019d Up. He argued the deciding factor was the specific interference with the goalkeeper\u2019s arm that prevented routine handling. \u201cWe\u2019ve said all season that if a goalkeeper is impeded by an opponent grabbing or holding their arms and therefore they can\u2019t do their job, they\u2019ll be penalized. We\u2019re not just talking about contact with goalkeepers, we\u2019re talking about a specific type of contact when the goalkeeper\u2019s arms or hands are being interfered with, stopping them doing their job.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when you see the best angle on this, you\u2019ll see that that\u2019s what happens from Pablo. And on the video, it\u2019s clear and it\u2019s obvious, and it happens early. And even though it\u2019s not clear and obvious to the referee, because he\u2019s got a huge group of players in a penalty area, and it\u2019s difficult to see, when the VAR sees this, of course, they have to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audio shows the VAR team identifying Pablo\u2019s action on Raya as the most significant contact, while also flagging Leandro Trossard holding Pablo and Declan Rice impeding Konstantinos Mavropanos. The exchange includes the VAR panel recommending an on-field review: “VAR: It\u2019s literally just a possible foul on Raya, what I\u2019m seeing in terms of that.” and “VAR: Chris [Kavanagh, referee], I\u2019m going to recommend an on-field review for a possible foul on the goalkeeper, but there are some other incidents to look at while you\u2019re at the monitor as well.” The referee then confirms the decision: “After review, West Ham number?” “19.” “Foul.”<\/p>\n
Webb said officials aim to identify actions that are impactful on a player’s ability to perform. “When they\u2019re trying to identify what should be penalized, they\u2019re looking for situations that are impactful,” he said. He also noted the wider nature of the issue across the division, citing Brighton & Hove Albion manager Fabian H\u00fcrzeler’s unusual step of enlisting a Mixed Martial Arts fighter to help with penalty-box duels. Webb confirmed further discussions with clubs and stakeholders will follow. “We consult all the time with the clubs, with the fan groups, with a range of other stakeholders about the type of game that they want to see and how they want us to officiate it,” Webb concluded. “This season\u2019s been a little bit more unique than previous ones about the number of contacts in the penalty area, and it does create a challenge for the officials. ]”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VAR audio explains why Pablo’s late contact on Raya led to West Ham’s equaliser being ruled out info<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[1505,1162],"class_list":["post-13771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}