Yahoo News Nottingham Forest penalty explanation revealed as VAR audio from Everton controversy released
One of Nottingham Forest’s penalty appeals in their controversial defeat to Everton was dismissed as “mutual engagement”, the VAR audio has revealed.
The Reds were left fuming at three penalty claims being turned down as they were beaten 2-0 at Goodison Park last month. Challenges by Ashley Young on Gio Reyna and Callum Hudson-Odoi, along with a handball shout against the Toffees defender, were all waved away by referee Anthony Taylor.
Taylor was not instructed to go to his monitor to review the incidents by VAR Stuart Attwell. And in an angry statement after the final whistle, Forest said they had “warned” the Professional Game Match Officials Board that Attwell “is a Luton fan” prior to the game but “they didn’t change him”.
READ MORE: Howard Webb makes Forest penalty admission after controversial Everton VAR call
READ MORE: Reds namechecked as controversial VAR call made
Audio of the third incident, between Young and Hudson-Odoi, indicates how Taylor judged the former to have played the ball. VAR officials Attwell and Simon Long believed there was not sufficient contact to overrule the decision and did not recommend a pitchside review.
Below is a transcript of what was said, as revealed on Match Officials Mic'd Up with PGMOL chief Howard Webb:
AR2 (assistant referee 2): “Now.”
AR1 (assistant referee 1): “Good. Only (Chris) Wood, play on, play on.”
VAR: “APP (Attacking Possession Phase), possible offside, possible pen.”
Ref: “Plays the ball, plays the ball, plays the ball.”
VAR: “Checking possible penalty, standby.”
Ref: “Looks like he plays the ball.”
VAR (as the review is played): “OK, so, slowly please. Because it just comes into shot.”
VAR (reviewing the incident): “OK, so they come together. There’s mutual engagement between them before the playing of the ball but it’s more of a tussle. Longy (Simon Long AVAR) what I’m seeing here is no clear action by the defender.
“Tayls (Anthony Taylor) confirm on-field decision of play on. Check is complete. Both players tussling for the ball. There’s a degree of normal contact as they both play the ball in the same space.”
Ref: “Thank you.”
Webb admitted Forest should have been awarded a spot-kick for that particular incident. He said: "I understand why we would have preferred an intervention on this situation. The referee waves away the penalty appeal. The VAR looks at it and asks himself the question, 'Was the non-award clearly and obviously wrong?' and came to the conclusion it wasn't.
"You hear him describing two players tussling for the ball. He doesn't see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, one that reaches the threshold of being very clear. But we would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgement for himself in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would've happened."
On the first two incidents, Webb said: "The first two we felt were really subjective calls. The first one involving some contact from Ashley Young on Gio Reyna. There was contact. The referee saw that but didn't feel it was impactful enough to penalise.
"We've set quite a high threshold for penalising contact all over the field really, but also in the penalty area. It's what the game has asked us to do.
"Not every single contact is a foul and this was one where there was quite minimal contact, consistent with other situations that we've waved away this season. The VAR quite rightly checked that one.
"The second one was a handball penalty situation. Ashley Young involved again. The ball hits his arm. He's moving as he tries to close a shot down from short distance and the referee deemed that the arm was in a natural position and the VAR check completed that one as well - quite understandably, in this subjective zone of handball. So we thought that both of those situations were in line with our expectations."
The day after the game, Forest had made a formal request for the full VAR audio to be made public. They said in a statement: “Nottingham Forest has submitted a formal request to the PGMOL to release into the public domain the audio recordings between officials during yesterday’s match against Everton at Goodison Park. The club has requested this be shared for three key match incidents - Ashley Young’s challenge on Giovanni Reyna (24th minute), Ashley Young’s handball (44th minute) and Ashley Young’s challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi (56th minute). We firmly advocate for the broader football community and supporters to have access to the audio and transcript for full transparency, ensuring the integrity of our sport is upheld.”
