PGMOL chief Howard Webb has praised the VAR process that allowed Wout Faes’ goal to stand in Leicester City’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham last month.
Whilst the Foxes may be ‘seeking clarity’ over on offside decision that helped snatch away a first win of the 2024/25 campaign in their most recent outing at Crystal Palace, an explanation has now only just been provided for one that almost aided victory at Craven Cottage.
Emile Smith-Rowe had put the hosts ahead after 18 minutes, but they seemingly couldn’t keep their lead through to half-time as Faes headed in an equaliser. The offside flag was immediately raised, dampening Steve Cooper and Co’s celebrations, however a VAR review saw the goal reinstated and the match poised for a decisive second period.
In the now-released audio from the game, at the time referee Darren Bond relayed to his VAR, Jarred Gillett, the message: “On-field decision is offside, Jarred. No goal.”
“Right, so [Jamie] Vardy is in close proximity. He’s not in the line of vision, doesn’t attempt to play the ball,” Gillett responded. He then added: “I’m going to recommend an on-field review of the offside decision. It’s a subjective offside. Make your way to the monitor, we’ll check the rest of the APP [Attacking Possession Phase] now.”
Bond came to conclusion: “No impact on the goalkeeper,” as Gillett concurred, saying: “He’s not in the line of vision and doesn’t have an impact on the goalkeeper’s ability to play the ball.”
This information was made public on the Match Officials Mic’d Up programme, during which former England striker Michael Owen interviews head of the refereeing body PGMOL, Webb, for honest responses about recent decisions in the Premier League, whether they were correct and ultimately what work is being done to make sure any problems do not occur again.
In this instance where a goal was awarded to Leicester, Webb praised the decision-making of Bond and Gillett.
“The referee’s call in this case was offside. They penalised Jamie Vardy. That was clearly and obviously wrong. And the VAR was right to intervene,” he explained. “The reason it was wrong is because actually when the ball is headed forward by Faes, that’s the moment you make the offside judgment. And by that moment Jamie Vardy has moved away from the goalkeeper.
“Vardy is out of the way by then and this is just not an offside offence. And therefore it was a good intervention. Different to some of the ones we’ve seen previously where the attacking players stayed right in front of the goalkeeper blocking the goalkeeper’s view, and therefore that would be an offside offence impacting the ‘keeper’s ability to save the ball.
“In this case, there’s no impact in a good situation where VAR rightly comes in to give a goal back to the game.”
Unfortunately for Leicester, Faes’ goal would eventually mean little in the way of a positive result as Alex Iwobi would go on to net the winner for Fulham. What’s more, the wait continues for a response to the club’s latest gripe with VAR.
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