REFEREES’ allegiances are set to be made public this season, Howard Webb has said.
Nottingham Forest incurred a Football Association charge in May after they criticised the decision to appoint Stuart Attwell — a Luton fan — as the VAR for their match against Everton where they felt Attwell denied three clear penalty claims.
Webb, the chief refereeing officer for Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), said there were no plans to alter the allegiances rules after Forest insisted it should take “contextual rivalries” into account when making match appointments.
However, he did say there were plans afoot to put the allegiances list in the public domain.
“Officials are asked to declare any specific interests in advance of the season, and as the season goes on should any of those things change. That will be made public, I believe, so you can see what that looks like as well and what those declarations of interests are.
“We review each of those and then make a decision [on appointments], because there’s a conflict of interests if you declare yourself as a supporter of a club, or if you’ve played for a club.
“If you’ve got any personal connections to people who work for clubs as well, we’ll make an evaluation of all of those [factors].”
Forest were charged by the FA on the same day it was confirmed their referee analyst, Mark Clattenburg, was leaving the club.
Clattenburg was given a formal warning by the FA over his part in the Everton row.
Concerns had been raised about Clattenburg’s ability, as a former referee himself, to have such an influential role and be able to contact Webb prior to matches if he wished.
Webb could not comment on the Clattenburg case specifically with the FA’s case against Forest still pending, but said he would still always welcome clubs contacting him and was committed to being “open and transparent” with them.
Webb also admitted VARs had become “too forensic” and said they should only recommend overturning subjective on-field decisions in the season ahead where errors “jump off the screen.”
The league will operate the “referees’ call” principle this season, where VARs will be asked to stick with on-field decisions unless they think a clear and obvious error has been made.
“What we can do is is really focus on what VAR was always meant for,” Webb said.
“It was meant for those clear situations that would live large in the memory. It wasn’t meant to re-referee the game on small touches and little contacts and all those things that have created debate and discussion – leave those on the field.
“Don’t micro-analyse things, situations, don’t be too forensic. Let things jump off the screen when you look at it and say ‘thank goodness we’ve got VAR, we can rectify that immediately, put it right, and then get on with the game’.”
One area where Webb feels referees and VARs have perhaps been too forensic is on handball calls, and hopes to see a “less is more” approach in 2024-25.
“Based on the guidance that we’ve given – and that’s based on the consultation we’ve had – that you’ll see less of what people deem as harsh handball penalties going forward,” Webb said.
Webb said there was strong support for the principle that penalties should not be given where a player plays the ball onto their own arm and where that touch creates a clear change of trajectory.
The example he gave was a penalty awarded against Wolves’ Joao Gomes against Luton last season, when the ball deflected up off his leg onto his outstretched arm.
He said that a survey of players and managers last spring, where they were asked to give their view on a range of incidents, found that in excess of 90 per cent felt no penalty should have been given in that instance.
