Premier League referees are urged to enforce the new rule strictly after a Liverpool player received a penalty.
On the first day of the season, Alexis Mac Allister was booked for fictitiously waving a yellow card, but Destiny Udogie received no warning for an identical incident in September.
Referees have been urged by PGMOL chief Howard Webb to crack down on dissent, with a fresh crackdown on players who waved imaginary yellow cards.
It follows several Premier League incidents, such as the time referee Simon Hooper failed to show Destiny Udogie the red card. During a September match against Liverpool, the Tottenham defender motioned for a card even though he was already on the yellow, but he was not issued one.
Some elite players have received warnings, though, for this season’s yellow card wave. Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool was fouled during the opening weekend match against Chelsea, but it was he who ended up in the referee’s notebook after waving his arms in an attempt to have his opponent booked.
Webb reportedly told officials at a Loughborough referees summit that the rule needs to be applied uniformly both this season and in the years to come, according to The Times. The 52-year-old did, however, commend the progress made in putting an end to abuse directed towards officials. Webb pointed out that there have been no instances of mass confrontation this season, as opposed to eight at this point last term.
Additionally, it is said that Webb pushed VAR to assume greater accountability and intervene when soft penalties are obviously incorrect. This comes after Webb instructed VAR to question the on-field referees after Newcastle was given a penalty for a foul on Fabian Schar by Hwang Hee-chan.
“We said from the outset that VAR shouldn’t referee the game, it should reserve itself for clear situations when a clear error has occurred on the field and the VAR steps in to have that rectified,” Webb stated last week.
“The VAR is assessing the various factors and searching for unambiguous proof of that mistake. Has the defender, for instance, played the ball? Do the players communicate with one another?”
After Hwang seemed to catch Schar inside the area, Anthony Taylor gestured to the location. Replays, however, appeared to show that Hwang touched the ball first, and Wolves insisted it wasn’t a penalty. Jarred Gillett, the VAR official, did not reverse the decision; Callum Wilson scored instead.
In order to challenge the on-field officials for soft penalties, Howard Webb has urged VAR to do so (Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images).)
“In this situation we see that Hwang doesn’t actually play the ball, the ball is played onto him by Schar and then there’s contact between the two of them, but what the referee is seeing in real-time is Hwang bring that leg through, making contact with Schar,” Webb said.
“After watching the replay, we can see that Schar simply puts his foot through and makes contact while Hwang actually pulls his swing back a little bit to prevent it from going through.
“Even though there is contact and Hwang does not play the ball, we believe that this situation meets the requirements for being a blatant and obvious error.
Going forward, we’re asking the VARs to follow our instructions, look at it, and determine where the considerations stand. If they disagree with the call made on the field, they should ask the referee what they saw, and if it differs noticeably from what’s on the video, they should suggest a review so that the referee can go to the screen and review it again.
