Howard Webb admits Liverpool wrongly denied penalty against Arsenal for Martin Odegaard handball apologize to all Liverpool fans

Howard Webb admits Liverpool wrongly denied penalty against Arsenal for Martin Odegaard handball

Referee chief Howard Webb has admitted Liverpool were wrongly denied a penalty in last month’s 1-1 draw with Premier League title rivals Arsenal.

Manager Jurgen Klopp was bemused by the decision not to penalise Martin Odegaard for handball following a free-kick during the first half at Anfield.

Referee Chris Kavanagh allowed play to continue and VAR David Coote decided not to advise him to watch the incident again on the pitch side monitor.

The audio between the officials has now been released with Webb, the chief refereeing officer of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), explaining that a spot-kick should have been awarded.

Kavanagh initially said that he had not given a penalty because Odegaard’s “hand was on the floor”. Having watched replays of the incident, Coote told assistant VAR Lee Betts: “For me Lee, he’s falling down, he’s moving his arm in towards him, so it’s check complete for me.”

Betts: “Yeah from the brief look I’ve seen, yeah, agreed, yeah, yeah.”

Coote: “Check complete. Confirming on field decision. No penalty.”

Responding on the Sky Sports show ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’ to host Michael Owen saying he thought it was a penalty, Webb said: “So do I. The referee on the field recognised that Odegaard had slipped and so his arm had gone towards the ground.

“We’ve talked in the past about supporting arms if somebody falls, breaks their falls with the arm and it’s all very natural.

“But in this situation there’s an important difference to a normal player falling.

“Odegaard doesn’t just accidentally fall on to the ball, he actually pulls his arm back in towards his body which is when the ball makes contact with the arm.

“The VAR looked at that aspect and he felt it was a case of Odegaard trying to actually make himself smaller by bringing the arm back towards the body.

“But whether it’s instinctive or deliberate he gets a huge advantage by bringing the arm back towards the ball.

“All the feedback we got after was very clear – the game expects a penalty in this situation and I would agree. This is one where we didn’t reach the right outcome on that basis.”

Liverpool were trailing 1-0 at the time but later equalised through Mohamed Salah.

Asked about the decision post-match, Klopp said: “I am pretty sure someone will come to explain to me why it was not a handball but I don’t know how. I think we all agree it was handball.”

Webb issued an apology to Liverpool earlier this season after Klopp’s side were wrongly denied a goal by a VAR error during the defeat at Tottenham in September.

(Video) PGMOL release official audio from Odegaard handball incident at Anfield; ref gets it so wrong

The PGMOL have released the official audio from the contentious decision to not award Liverpool a penalty during their clash with Arsenal at Anfield last month.

Jurgen Klopp’s side played out a 1-1 draw with the Gunners at L4 but were bizarrely not awarded a spot kick in the first half after the ball struck Martin Odegaard on the arm.

On field referee Chris Kavanagh can be heard explaining that the Norwegian’s hand was on the floor meaning he cannot be punished for the ball striking him on the arm, however, when you see a replay of the incident you can clearly see that the Arsenal No. 8 used the ball to retain his balance and prevented Mo Salah from progressing into the box.

VAR David Coote and AVAR Lee Betts should’ve intervened and awarded a penalty, something which PGMOL chief Howard Webb admitted on Sky Sports this evening (via @SkySportsPL on X), but yet another shocking decision has went against Liverpool.

We currently find ourselves two points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League but it remains to be seen whether this controversial incident is something we’ll look back on at the end of the season.

Check the PGMOL footage and Webb speaking below:

PGMOL chief Howard Webb talks through VAR’s decision to not award Liverpool a penalty for a possible handball against Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard 👇