‘I understand’… Howard Webb now clears up major incident during Newcastle vs Bournemouth

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While it is so often infuriating, Newcastle United should actually be thanking VAR after last weekend.

It was their intervention that allowed Anthony Gordon to score a second half penalty against Bournemouth, after Fabian Schar was fouled inside the box.

The decision was initially not given on the pitch. The linesman had flagged for offside, but VAR intervened and told Michael Salisbury to delay the restart.

Fans inside St James’ Park were left in the dark, as a lengthy discussion got underway over whether or not Newcastle should be given a penalty.

While Schar was in an offside position, his shirt was clearly being pulled by the Bournemouth defender.

And that resulted in a penalty being given, despite the dismay of some pundits. Richard Keys was one person who reacted angrily to the decision, describing it as ‘unfathomable’.

But the correct decision was made, and PGMOL chief Howard Webb has explained why.

Howard Webb explains why Newcastle penalty was given

Webb has spoken about the decision on Mic’d Up alongside Michael Owen, who queried why Schar being offside was deemed irrelevant. Webb understood Owen’s confusion, but explained why the officials ultimately made the right call.

“I understand philosophically why people would make that argument, but the law specifically stipulates that this is not an offence of offside in this moment, because he’s just in an offside position – he’s not done anything,” he said.

“If a player moving towards the ball in an offside position gets dragged back or fouled, the first offence is the foul because the offside offence hasn’t yet happened. They haven’t done anything in that position that we could penalise as officials.”

Confusing decision was the correct one

It is a little bit confusing and quite strange that the Schar offside was simply overruled, but Webb’s explanation makes sense.

While Schar might have been offside, he had not interfered with play. He was robbed of that opportunity by Adam Smith, who pulled his shirt.

From a Bournemouth perspective, it must be infuriating. If Smith had not pulled his shirt and Schar had scored, it would not have been given. Yet somehow they were able to concede a penalty from the same position.

But Webb explains it well, with Schar not actually doing anything wrong despite being in an offside position.

The only complaints Newcastle can have is how long it took to make the decision, but ultimately they made the right call and it went our way.