PREM refs’ chief Howard Webb will admit Nottingham Forest SHOULD have had a penalty in their controversial defeat at Everton.
But Forest are still likely to be hit by FOUR FA charges for their response to the game at Goodison on April 21.
The City Ground club were insistent they were wrongly denied three spot kicks by ref Anthony Taylor, all against Ashley Young.
And Forest sent out an inflammatory social media post, intimating that VAR Stuart Attwell may have been influenced into not intervening because he is a Luton fan.
It read: “Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
“We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him.
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“Our patience has been tested multiple times. NFFC will now consider its options.”
The club, boss Nuno Espirito Santo, defender Neco Williams and “referee analyst” Mark Clattenburg are all set to be hit by charges while the Premier League is also considering charging Forest for not acting “with the utmost good faith”.
It has now emerged that the Prem’s Key Match Incident panel – the group of former players, managers and refs that studies every VAR decision – has ruled that the first “foul” by Young on Claudio Reyna was not a spot-kick while an appeal for handball did not meet the threshold for intervention.
However, the third incident, in which Taylor deemed Young had played the ball before making contact with Callum Hudson-Odoi was “a foul” which Attwell should have seen and told the referee to view on the pitchside monitor and penalise.
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And Webb is understood to publicly agree that an error was made when he reviews the third penalty shout on the latest monthly edition of “Match Officials Mic’d Up”, filmed on Monday night and which will be broadcast on Tuesday evening.
Forest followed up their loss to Everton with a 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City, extending their winless run to four matches.
They sit in 17th place, one point above Luton and two above Burnley with three games remaining.
Nuno’s side go to already-relegated Sheffield United on Saturday, before they host Chelsea on May 11.
They then head to Burnley on the final day in what could be a winner-takes-all fight for survival.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
