Referees’ chief Howard Webb has described the decision to disallow Josh King’s goal against Chelsea as a “misjudgement” by the match officials.
The 18-year-old looked to have scored a maiden league goal for Fulham in Saturday’s west London derby at Stamford Bridge, until his effort was eventually ruled out after referee Robert Jones was asked to go to the pitchside monitor following a VAR check.
A controversial moment in the game saw the goal chalked off after team-mate Rodrigo Muniz was adjudged to have stepped on Trevoh Chalobah’s foot while turning with the ball.
In the aftermath of the incident, Michael Salisbury was stood down as VAR official for Sunday’s meeting between Liverpool and Arsenal.
After a VAR review, play is pulled back for a foul. https://t.co/V3MC66rLLM
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) August 30, 2025
Speaking on the “Match Officials Mic’d Up” programme, Professional Game Match Officials Limited chief refereeing officer Webb stated the decision was the result of a “misjudgement” by the officials.
Webb said: “It wasn’t controversial, it was wrong. We’ve established some principles in terms of how we officiate in the Premier League and how we use VAR.
“They sit around a high threshold for penalising contact, aiding the flow, rhythm and tempo of the game. We’ve also established a high bar for intervention with VAR.
“In other words, if situations are not clearly wrong and the referee has made a call on the field, that call will stand or at least should stand.
“That’s the message we give to all of our VARs, particularly when we come to taking away goals that are obviously a crucial moment in the game. We should only be taking goals away when the evidence is very clear that’s the only thing we can do and that’s the guidance we give to our officials.
“In this situation, that guidance wasn’t followed properly. There was a misjudgement by the officials involved in this situation about how that contact happened between Muniz and Chalobah.
“The officials got super focused on that contact, without looking at the full context of how it happened.
“It happens when Muniz is in possession of the ball, controls the ball, turns naturally and brings his foot down onto Chalobah, who’s moved his foot into a space which the Fulham player has the right to put his foot into in that normal way.
“A misjudgement by the officials. Obviously as always we take the learning, we look at what we can do better to ensure we reduce these to a minimum.”
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