The situation with Hwang isn't a new scenario, what we've more or less always seen with VAR is that if the ref blows for a penalty, VAR won't overturn it, no matter how minimal the contact is, unless the replays show there's no contact between the players. Essentially you'd have a situation where if the ref blows for a penalty it won't be overturned by VAR, and if the ref doesn't award a penalty then VAR won't recommend him to look at it either, and we've had plenty of those over the years VAR has been in use.
So when Webb states the following:
In this situation we see Hwang does not play the ball, it is played on to him by Schar and then there is contact between the players,"
It should be fairly clear that with the current threshold for clear and obvious, there is no way the decision for a penalty should be overturned. Just like the vast amounts of other similar situations.
However, Webb now introduces a completely different interpretation. It's not a clear and obvious fault based on what VAR sees on the screen,
it's a clear and obvious fault because of what the referee thinks he saw on the pitch and what the VAR sees on the replay.
Everything on the pitch happens quickly and you make split second decisions based on your instant interpretation, so you will always have situations where you interpreted it differently from what actually happened, yet there is contact that means your decision won't be overturned as it's subjective if it's a foul or not, not re-refereeing matches yada yada.
Webb's solution:
Officials are now being urged to challenge on-field referees for more detailed reasoning when a decision is debatable.
But decisions have been debatable for quite some time, we're always back to clear and obvious and not re-refereeing matches based on replays, to the point where goals have been allowed/disallowed randomly with fouls in the build up, because the referee has seen the situation and it's a subjective decision on the pitch if it's enough to make it a freekick or if that's what the referee is accepting as normal contact. When Arsenal had a goal disallowed against us due to VAR intervening over a foul in the build up that the ref looked straight at, it was deemed to be a mistake by VAR due to the thresholds for clear and obvious. It didn't matter that it was a blatantly obvious freekick due to Eriksen being fouled to get a touch on the ball, the only thing that apparently mattered was that the referee had seen it and decided to allow it. Yet now, with the Hwang penalty, the subjective stuff suddenly gets a new layer of subjectivity but only in special cases which are again subjective, why?
Why is the Hwang penalty any different from say the disallowed Maguire header against Burnley in jan 21, which got disallowed by Friend for Maguire essentially timing his header perfectly on the back post, with the defender mistiming his. Compare that to the Newcastle goal against Arsenal.
Reality is that subjective decisions aren’t
that subjective. Subjectivity becomes an excuse in relation to clear and obvious, VAR avoiding to get involved. Subjectivity is simply what the referee has seen. Stick 100 referees in a room and show them videos of fouls, red card situations, penalty situations, and you will see a lot more consistency than you’re seeing with a referee on the pitch making split second decisions and VAR having to decide if it’s within the thresholds or not.
The solution isn't to add another layer of subjectivity, like Webb is suggesting, which will only lead to even less consistency excused by "subjectivity". He is trying to fix a specific problem with a solution that created the problem in the first place. The only solution that makes sense is to have a proper method that all referees follow, where one of the key initial questions should always be "What did you see". It should be as standard as having methods in place to verify what the actual decision on the pitch is, but it took a massive feck up in order for them to see the need for that.
