Sven Botman Avoided Red as Howard Webb Backs VAR Over Pundit Anger

• Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb called Sven Botman’s tackle on Nicolas Jackson a “high-end reckless challenge” but backed the decision to leave it as a yellow card.
• Sky Sports pundits Jamie Redknapp, Dermot Gallagher and Jay Bothroyd all said the challenge deserved a red card.
• After seven rounds there have been 21 VAR interventions, nine of them subjective, compared with three at the same point last season.

Webb Says the Referee’s Call Is Working as Intended

Howard Webb has described Sven Botman’s tackle on Nicolas Jackson as a “high-end reckless challenge” and still defended the decision to keep it at a yellow card. The head of the Premier League’s referees made his case on Match Officials Mic’d Up, days after Sky Sports pundits demanded a red card and Jackson said he “nearly broke my leg”.

The incident came in the 18th minute of Newcastle’s game against Aston Villa on Saturday. Botman went in strongly and over the top of the ball, and the contact on the Villa striker came from his trailing leg. Referee Jarred Gillett showed a yellow card. VAR Stuart Attwell checked it and supported the on-field call. Villa went on to win 1-0 through a 36th-minute goal from Johan Manzambi.

Gillett explained his thinking afterwards. “I think it’s reckless,” he said, and added that it was “still reckless” even with a touch on the ball.

The Pundits Wanted a Red Card

The reaction from the Sky Sports panel was blunt. Jamie Redknapp said: “If VAR can’t see that’s a red, we’re in trouble.” He called the tackle “so dangerous” and said: “How he’s not broken his leg there… I like to see aggression. I want to see 50/50 tackles, but you can’t do that anymore.”

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher reached the same verdict on Ref Watch. “I think it’s a red card,” he said. “It’s got everything for a red card tackle – it’s got speed, intensity, he scissors him.” Jay Bothroyd went further and compared it to the headbutt by Yehor Yarmoliuk at Brentford, which brought a red card. “Botman is more violent conduct than the headbutt,” he said. “He could have broken his leg.”

Jackson told Sky Sports after the game: “The referee said it was a yellow card but it was so high. Hopefully next time it is a red card. I nearly broke my leg, but it’s fine. It’s part of football.”

Why the VAR Stayed Out of It

Webb accepted that the challenge was dangerous but said the VAR was only ever asked one question: was the referee clearly wrong? “The referee in the moment, on the ground, sees it as a reckless challenge – no doubt a high-end reckless challenge – as Botman comes in and gets a touch on the ball,” he said. “There’s obviously some speed he comes in with. The VAR looks at that decision and tries to identify whether that was clearly wrong.”

The audio from the VAR room shows how Attwell and his assistant, Craig Taylor, reached their view. Attwell said he did not like the challenge and that Botman “goes round” the player with a scissor-style action. Taylor replied that the contact was “not with the studs” and was “not a clear point of contact”. Attwell settled on “no secondary scissor action” and confirmed yellow cards for Botman and for Joelinton, whose own tackle came first. Gillett had played advantage on the Joelinton challenge before Botman arrived.

Webb said the outcome would have been different with stronger evidence. “If the VAR had seen strong stud contact from Botman’s extended leg into the ankle or shin of Jackson, or there had been a closing of the scissor, I think we’d have probably come out with a different outcome,” he said. He added that had Gillett shown a red card, the VAR would have let that stand too.

“We don’t want the referee’s decision to be re-refereed by the VAR,” Webb said. “We want the referee to have ownership of the decision and the VAR to only step in when there’s an element that’s clearly wrong.” He called Botman’s tackle “a good example really of how the referee’s call is working in the Premier League this season”, describing it as “a lighter-touch approach”.

The Numbers Behind the Lighter Touch

The figures back up Webb’s description of a changed approach. After seven rounds of Premier League games there have been 21 VAR interventions, and nine of them were subjective. At the same point last season there were only three interventions, none of them subjective.

The error count has fallen alongside. The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel has judged one VAR intervention wrong this season, Manchester City’s offside winning goal at Manchester United. It also found one missed intervention, a penalty that should have gone to Arsenal at Aston Villa. Last season the panel had recorded four errors for missed interventions after seven rounds.

Webb used the same session to back another disputed call. He said Rodrigo Bentancur’s red card for a headbutt on Manchester United’s Luke Shaw, and Shaw’s yellow for the push that led to it, were “absolutely the right outcome”. “When players make contact with their head, they’re running a really high risk,” he said. “It’s seen as a violent act.” He pointed out that officials separate contact to the neck, face and head from contact to the chest.

Under this season’s approach, Webb said, the referee’s call on the pitch carries the decision, and the original ruling would have stood whether Gillett had shown yellow or red. Botman stays on a yellow card, and the pundits who wanted a red have made their position clear.