Howard Webb admitted officials got one of the big decisions wrong in Nottingham Forest's controversial Premier League defeat to Everton this month.

Forest were beaten 2-0 at Goodison Park on April 21 but were left fuming that referee Anthony Taylor did not award a penalty despite three separate calls involving Ashley Young.

Following the game, Forest released a controversial statement on the social media platform X - formerly Twitter - that hinted at the fact VAR Stuart Attwell was a fan of relegation rivals Luton Town and should not have been involved in the game.

Webb was speaking about the incidents on the Mic'd Up TV programme and claimed that while the first decisions were "really subjective calls", the third one , which saw Young challenge Callum Hudson-Odoi, should have resulted in a penalty for Nuno Espirito Santo's team.

"The referee waves away the penalty appeal. The VAR looks at it and asks himself the question, 'Was the non-award clearly and obviously wrong?' and came to the conclusion it wasn't," Webb said.

"He doesn't see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.

"But we would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgement for himself in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would've happened."

"The game is played by human beings, it's officiated by human beings. And obviously our job is to try to ensure that we have a positive impact on the game by identifying correct decisions on the field. This wasn't one.

"But of course they're humans making judgements as well, so we always are trying to reduce the number of errors that we that we make."

Webb also said referee Michael Oliver will have been "really disappointed" to have not originally spotted a foul by Declan Rice on Ben Davies as Arsenal beat Tottenham 3-2 in the North London derby on Sunday, with a VAR intervention eventually awarding a spot-kick.

"I know Michael [Oliver] will be really disappointed," added Webb.

"He had a really good game. He's one of our top referees and one of the top referees in the world."

Referees’ chief Howard Webb expressed his disappointment that VAR was unable to “rectify a clear error” following Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal for Liverpool against Tottenham.

Miscommunication between video assistant referee Darren England and referee Simon Hooper led to the winger’s goal being wrongly ruled out for offside in a 2-1 Premier League defeat for the Reds on September 30.

Audio of the incident was released in the aftermath and, speaking on an episode of ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’ on Sky Sports on Tuesday, Professional Game Match Officials Limited technical director Webb admitted the situation was frustrating.

“We took the unusual step of releasing the audio from this situation not long after it happened,” he said.

“We wanted to show everybody what was very quickly pretty apparent to us, a human error and loss of concentration.

“Of course we’re all disappointed the VAR system didn’t step in and rectify a clear error that we’d seen on the field with the disallowing of the goal.

“Nobody’s more disappointed than the officials themselves, they take pride in their work and want to be a positive influence on the game, but of course in this situation it wasn’t the case.”

Referees’ body PGMOL confirmed that new VAR communication guidelines would be applied.

“One of the things we have to do is put things in place so that, should we have human error, it doesn’t have the damage or the impact that we saw on this occasion,” Webb added when asked about the language officials use.

“One of the things that this has brought into sharp focus is the need to reiterate some of those communication protocols that are really valuable in VAR to prevent this kind of thing happening.”

One of the talking points from the latest round of fixtures at the weekend was the decision not to send off Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic for a challenge on Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard.

The City midfielder was shown a yellow card before avoiding another shortly afterwards and Webb admitted Kovacic was “fortunate” to stay on the pitch.

“I do (think he was),” he said.

“I mean obviously the VAR can’t get involved, second yellows are something that the VAR is not able to get involved in, but I think he was an extremely fortunate player to stay on the field of play.

“The referee – one of our best referees, one of the best referees in the world – Michael Oliver, will no doubt review that.”

Rotherham boss Matt Taylor has revealed referees chief Howard Webb and match referee Robert Madley visited him in his office to apologise for a decision that went against the Millers in their 2-2 draw with Blackburn on Saturday.

Webb, head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), went to the club along with head of Championship referees Kevin Friend and Madley to discuss the incidents in the match.

Rotherham were leading 2-0 when Fred Onyedinma was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in the space of three minutes, the first when he celebrated by the fans after scoring his side’s second goal and then for gesturing for an opponent to get booked after he had been fouled.

It has been a busy start to the season for Webb, who has been instrumental in improving communication and feedback since taking over from Mike Riley last December, as he has been dealing with the fall-out of Simon Hooper and VAR’s failure not to give Wolves a penalty against Manchester United as well as visiting other clubs around the country, including Lincoln and Barrow.

Taylor said the three-man party admitted Onyedinma should not have been booked for his celebration at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.

“In my office I was lucky to have Howard Webb, Kevin Friend and the referee from last weekend Mr Madley,” he said. “So they were all here talking through the weekend, the way it unfolded.

“The apology, which we’ve had two weeks on the bounce now, was for the first yellow card and that shouldn’t have been a yellow card. We know that, the referee knows that, everyone knows that.

“But it was given as a yellow card and the second yellow card is justified.

“I had three people in my office talking honestly and openly about how they want to improve. They’ll only improve if we’re right as well, if I improve as a manager, if my team improves in terms of their conduct and the way they work.

“The game will only get better off the back of everyone working together and the overriding feeling was that players are struggling a little bit with the changes and how strong some of the officiating has been at the moment and also the officials are struggling at the moment with their changes.”

Rotherham have fallen foul to the stricter rules brought in this season, with midfielder Cafu also sent off on the opening day of the season for a second yellow card that the PGMOL admitted should not have been given.

Taylor says the club will lobby the Football Association to change the rules so yellow cards can be appealed.

“If they’ve admitted to the mistake or owned up to the mistake then we’ve got to be able to appeal yellow cards because we can’t afford to have a player missing who shouldn’t be missing this weekend,” he said.

“The referees agreed with that, it’s not the referees, that’s not their law, that’s not their rule. They don’t want to make mistakes and they don’t want to see teams punished on a double-level basis when it does happen.”

Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb says the change in approach on added time is here to stay, despite early criticism from top-flight players and managers.

Referees in competitions worldwide have been instructed by the game’s lawmakers to measure time lost to stoppages more accurately, an approach first adopted at the World Cup in Qatar last year where an additional 11 minutes and six seconds were played on average in the group stage.

Webb said the change was necessary as football gets to grips with the “dark arts” of time-wasting, with a a more robust approach set to be taken to dealing with players who delay restarts in play.

Sunday’s Community Shield lasted over 105 minutes, with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola saying the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which sets the game’s laws, had not consulted with managers and players over the change in approach.

Manchester United defender Raphael Varane echoed those criticisms on Monday, saying the change, allied to a congested calendar, was “damaging” to the game.

Whereas ‘rule of thumb’ approaches had been used in the Premier League for certain stoppages last season – 30 seconds per goal celebration and substitution for example – referees and their wider team will now be asked to be more exact.

The Premier League anticipates the change in approach will increase the length of the average match in the coming season by three minutes and 23 seconds compared to last season – going up to 101 minutes and 49 seconds.

Webb, the chief refereeing officer at Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), said: “As far as I’m aware and concerned (the change in approach on added time) is here to stay.

“I appreciate we’re hearing two sides of a coin here, but there was also a lot of noise around the need to do something around increasing effective playing time and getting more game for people who are paying good money to go and watch football.

“IFAB have acted undoubtedly with good intentions to try to deal with this. Last season a quarter of the games in the Premier League went above 100 minutes. I am expecting it to settle down.

“For sure there’s more dark arts in the game than previously. Everybody tells me that, and I see that myself as well. One of the things that will hurt us here is if we’re not consistent with this in the way that we play it. We have to be. It can’t be a flash in the pan. It can’t be a short-term campaign.”

In response to Guardiola’s assertion around a lack of consultation, Webb said: “Certain things change each year in terms of the laws of the game. IFAB is the organisation that ratifies changes.

“There is a consultation process that goes into that. There is a way people can feed into the process.

“Obviously, when something is ratified at (IFAB’s) AGM, it comes our way to deliver. By the end of this week I will have done at least 17 pre-season briefings, so people are aware what is coming. I am really keen to keep engaging, consulting and getting feedback and embracing the feedback and comparing it against other feedback we get.

“We have to find where the benefit is with any changes we want to apply. Is it frustrating? No. I know consultation does exist from our side, that is what we can control and we will keep engaging.”

The other major initiative from a refereeing perspective is a clampdown on poor behaviour from players and managers as part of a wider move to improve conduct, including among fans.

Webb said: “For too long our officials have not necessarily been able to make that differentiation (between passion and unacceptable behaviour) or have chosen for whatever reason to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to certain things.

“But the power of example is so strong and we are seeing a lot of examples (of bad behaviour) and all the numbers are tracking in the wrong direction around what’s happening in the game in this area.

“We’re seeing grassroots officials have a bad experience too often and this has got to change in our sport and we’re determined collectively within the game to do this.”

Webb also confirmed audio from VAR decisions – including some clips where errors were made – would be aired on a monthly basis.

It follows on from Webb appearing on Monday Night Football towards the end of last season to talk through some incidents from earlier in the season in a bid to provide greater transparency around VAR.