The Premier League’s Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb believes there was an incorrect penalty decision in Manchester United’s defeat at West Ham last month shortly before Erik ten Hag’s sacking, according to a new report.
United parted ways with the Dutch coach on 28 October, one day after they were subject to a 2-1 loss at West Ham’s London Stadium by a controversial stoppage-time penalty.
Matthijs de Ligt charged towards a dropping ball inside United’s penalty box during the closing stages of the allotted 90 minutes. The Dutch defender made minimal contact with West Ham‘s Danny Ings, whose shouts for a foul were not taken up by any of the crowd or his teammates as the on-pitch official, David Coote, waved play on.
However, video assistant referee Michael Oliver had spotted the supposed foul and directed Coote over to the pitch-side monitor. After a subsequent review of the incident, the referee awarded a penalty which Jarrod Bowen converted to secure all three points.
Webb has apparently made it clear that he did not agree with Oliver’s intervention from the VAR booth, per The Times. The chief refereeing officer at the PGMOL has not publicly voiced his opinion on the decision, but will have the opportunity to do so on next week’s episode of Match Officials Mic’d Up.
The Premier League’s official Match Centre explained the penalty at the time by outlining that “the VAR deemed there was sufficient contact on Ings’ lower leg”.
Ten Hag was furious with the decision after the match, lambasting the “injustice” of the incident. “Before the season there was the instruction about VAR only interfering in clear and obvious mistakes,” the former United boss fumed. “That is definitely not a clear and obvious mistake from the on field referee.
“More frustrations but I can do nothing with that. They don’t collect points and that’s what we have to do.”
Within 24 hours of a defeat which left the Red Devils languishing 14th in the Premier League table, United confirmed Ten Hag’s sacking.
