Brentford should have been awarded a penalty for Jayden Bogle’s challenge on Kevin Schade at Leeds, but the KMI Panel has backed VAR for staying out of the decision.
The Premier League’s Key Match Incident Panel has ruled Brentford should have had a penalty in their 1-1 draw at Leeds United, but also agreed that VAR was right not to step in.
Kevin Schade went to ground under Jayden Bogle’s challenge in the 66th minute, but referee Tony Harrington was unmoved and waved away the the Bees' appeals.
At that stage, Brentford were 1-0 up, Schade having put Keith Andrews’ side ahead just before the break. Leeds hit back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and the game finished level.
The independent KMI Panel has now reviewed the incident, which reviews major refereeing decisions from every round of Premier League matches.
Four out of five panel members felt Harrington got it wrong and that Bogle had indeed fouled Schade.
“The panel felt that a penalty should have been awarded for a foul by Bogle on Schade,” its assessment said. “There was foot-on-foot contact instigated by Bogle with enough contact for a penalty kick.”
Despite this, it didn’t lead the panel to the same conclusion about the decision from VAR’s Neil Davies.
On whether VAR should have stepped in, the panel was split, with a narrow 3-2 vote in favour of letting the on-field decision stand.
It leaves the unusual situation where the panel thinks Harrington made the wrong call, but his error wasn’t clear or obvious enough for VAR to send him to the monitor.
That’s down to the Premier League’s high bar for VAR intervention. The system isn’t there to fix every mistake, only those where the evidence is clear enough to overturn the referee’s call.
In Schade’s case, most of the panel felt that threshold hadn’t been met.
Brentford’s penalty shout came during one of their best attacking moves after the break. Dango Ouattara, just on as a substitute, drove forward on the counter and picked out Schade in the box.
Bogle stepped across as the Brentford forward took his touch, catching his foot in the process.
The Bees had controlled most of the first half, with Schade finishing off Keane Lewis-Potter’s cross to give them the lead. Leeds came out stronger after the break and Calvert-Lewin levelled from close range in the 79th minute.
Igor Thiago almost put Brentford back in front straight away, but his header was saved and he could only find the side-netting with the rebound.
However, the KMI panel assessment does not suggest VAR failed Brentford at Elland Road. Instead, it says Harrington should have given the penalty in the first place, and Davies on VAR was entitled to leave the original decision untouched once it reached the video review stage.
