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21st October 2024
11:47am BST
The Premier League have clarified the controversy surrounding Howard Webb after the former referee was seen to be 'communicating' with VAR from the stands.
The pictures were broadcast during Arsenal's shock 2-0 loss to Bournemouth, during which Gunners defender William Saliba was sent off for a challenge on Evanilson and was deemed to be the last man.
VAR jumped in to aid referee Rob Jones, eventually deciding to upgrade his initial yellow card to a red after watching the foul back on the screen.
However, during this process one shot was shown of Howard Webb, former referee and PGMOL chief, listening in to the decision, inciting many fans to suggest he was covertly involved in the decision making.
Even Sky Sports pundits were left baffled as Jamie Carragher put a post on X questioning what was happening, later to delete it.
Taking to X fans were outraged.
One person said: "He was obviously communicating with someone."
While another put: "I’ll happily accept Howard played absolutely no part in that decision. Just turn over your recordings and mobile. Show us what you received and what you said. Only way to convince us nothing dodgy is going on."
Unsurprisingly most of these complaints came from Arsenal fans.
Sky Sports also receive live audio of the referee and the VAR communications as presenter Dave Jones explained their take on the decision.
He said: "There have been one or two people you might have seen on social media speculating about what Howard Webb was up to in the crowd, the head of the PGMOL. He's got that earpiece in as well, he's got his phone out.
"But what we understand he is doing is listening to a match feed of the VAR officials and their communication with the on-field officials, as we do as broadcasters. But he has no input, he has no ability to talk to the officials who are actually making the decisions. He's not trying to [influence things], he's watching the game."
Now The Times have reported that Webb was indeed listening in, but could only hear and not talk back.
PGMOL said that Webb played no part in reaching the final decision and that he was merely listening to the same VAR feed that is available to Premier League broadcasters.
The organisation pointed out that all of their management staff have access to that audio when attending matches.
This statement will definitely not squash the conspiracy theorists who claim Webb was talking in the footage seen, however, for now, an explanation has been given.
