Referees' chief Howard Webb calls Sven Botman's challenge on Nicolas Jackson 'high-end reckless' yet defends VAR's decision to stay out of it.
Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson was at the center of one of the Premier League's latest VAR debates, and the man in charge of English refereeing has now weighed in. Howard Webb has admitted that Sven Botman's challenge on Jackson was a "high-end reckless challenge", but he still backs the video officials for not calling for a red card.
The verdict will not satisfy everyone. Many fans watching the incident felt a sending-off was on the cards, and Webb's description of the tackle as reckless only fuelled that view. Even so, he insisted that the standard for VAR to step in was not met.
That is the heart of the argument. VAR is only meant to overturn a referee's decision when there is a clear and obvious error. Webb's position is that a tackle can be dangerous and still sit on the right side of that threshold. In his view, the on-field call to stay with a lesser punishment was within the range of reasonable decisions, so the video team left it alone.
The explanation is unlikely to quiet the debate over how consistently the red-card threshold is applied in England's top flight. Strikers like Jackson, who live on physical battles with center-backs, will be watching closely to see how similar challenges are judged in the weeks ahead.
