Howard Webb has admitted that Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card against Wolves was ultimately the wrong decision – but he still defended the officials involved.
In controversial fashion, the Arsenal youngster was sent off in the first half of their 1-0 win in January after referee Michael Oliver showed him a straight red, a decision backed by VAR official Darren England.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta criticised the decision and pundit Micah Richards described it as “the worst decision in Premier League history.” Meanwhile, Premier League and Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer slammed the terrible decision by the referee.
Arsenal later appealed the red card, and it was overturned, but they were hit with a £65,000 fine after their players confronted Oliver in protest of the decision.
The debate resurfaced during Tuesday’s episode of Match Officials: Mic’d Up on Sky Sports, where the audio between Oliver and the VAR team was made public.
“From the outset, we would prefer a yellow card in this situation,” said Webb. “The referee saw Lewis-Skelly move toward an opponent with no real chance of playing the ball, raising his foot and making high contact. The opponent went down, and from Oliver’s perspective, it looked like serious foul play. The VAR reviewed it but didn’t feel it was ‘clearly and obviously wrong’ since the contact was quite high on the leg.”
PGMOL chief Howard Webb explains his thoughts on Myles Lewis-Skelly's sending off against Wolves before the three-match ban was then overturned. pic.twitter.com/NJe30C1ilO
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Howard Webb explains why VAR didn’t intervene
However, Webb pointed out that serious foul play requires “excessive force or brutality” – and wasn’t the case here. “The contact was glancing – it didn’t fully go into the leg, it glanced off and came down onto the foot. That’s why most people now agree this fell short of serious foul play. While there were arguments for a red, there were more reasons why it should have been a yellow,” he added.
Despite acknowledging the error, Webb defended the officials: “VAR didn’t want to re-referee the game. They only intervene if a decision is clearly wrong, and in the moment, they felt this didn’t meet that threshold. I’ve heard people call this a horrendous mistake, but it’s not! I understand why the referee saw it that way in real-time.”
The VAR audio confirmed that Oliver initially deemed the challenge serious foul play, with VAR checking if the decision was “clearly and obviously wrong.” The assistant VAR noted that Lewis-Skelly’s studs first made contact near the Achilles before glancing down at the foot. In the end, they upheld the red card.
“We listen, we give feedback, and we try to align decisions with what’s expected in the game,” Webb said.
This is medicine after death listening to Howard Webb itches my ears remember that Myles Lewis Skelly was given a red card and he was removed what if Arsenal lost the match and you said the referee was wrong in giving him the red card is that all you see the referees make their mistake at the expenses of the clubs and players because anything that happened in the pitch they the referees and FA have nothing to loose that is the reason they do what they do instead there head will come and talk bla bla bla that’s all upon their mistake Howard Webb have the shameless face to tell us why they fined Arsenal if Michael Oliver did not create the scene will the players crowd him I was ashamed of Webb when he said the reason they find Arsenal without telling us why such scene happened that is the most reason referees are perfect in everything they do but I at not surprised because Webb himself was a dubious referee in his days if we can remember one match he officiated With Man UTD vs Liverpool after the match Rye Babel tyed Man UTD Jessy in gt waist with whistle in his mouth to demonstrate him in the center of the field doing his partial decisions what he just said is always what happened when you send a thief to catch a thief all f know that they the referees and FA can’t addimite the their fault without coma but he must one day leave the PGMOL for sure.