On September 16, CEST, Howard Webb, chief referee of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), stated that during Manchester City's 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Sunday, Manchester City's goal should have been disallowed for offside, and that VAR official Matt Donohue experienced "tunnel vision" when Haaland's goal was allowed.

At a critical moment in this Manchester derby, Donohue made a grave error, focusing his VAR review primarily on Haaland's position to determine whether he was in an offside position when he received the cross in the box.

Ultimately, Haaland was judged to be in a legal position, just 3 cm from the offside line. However, the entire decision-making process failed to account for the role played by Manchester City player Enzo, who advanced from an offside position and interfered with Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez. In the end, without communication with on-field referee Michael Oliver, the goal was awarded.

Hours after Manchester United's defeat, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited quickly admitted it was a "refereeing error." Webb stated that neither Donohue nor VAR assistant Blake Antrobus had "properly assessed the full impact of Enzo's position."

Webb said on Tuesday during the Premier League's internal show "Mic'd Up": "The initial decision on the pitch was not about Enzo, but about Haaland."

"You'll hear it clearly on the audio. When VAR starts to check, they find, using semi-automated offside technology, that Haaland was actually not offside at the moment of the pass, with Gómez on the other side keeping him onside. So VAR focused too much on Haaland.

"But of course, when he then reviewed the complete action, he didn't properly assess the full impact of Enzo's position. He checked whether Enzo had touched the ball, because if he had, it could have meant he deflected it to Haaland, who then scored.

"Enzo didn't touch the ball, but VAR didn't properly assess the other factors involved in an offside decision. At that point, he experienced 'tunnel vision,' with all his attention on Haaland. His other colleagues should have helped him break out of this limitation, but unfortunately, they didn't on this occasion."

Over the past 48 hours, Webb has been in contact with Manchester United officials, replaying the audio recordings and match footage of the decision. This decision allowed Manchester City, down to ten men, to secure a crucial victory. Donohue and Antrobus have also been suspended from their officiating duties through the end of this weekend's Premier League matches and the start of the international break.

Webb added: "I'm very disappointed by this outcome, as we all are. Even more so the officials themselves. They take great personal pride in their work, and not getting the right decision in this situation, they understandably feel terrible right now."

"We've contacted Manchester United and acknowledged the error. We do this whenever a similar situation occurs. We will review this situation to understand what went wrong in the decision-making process and why we ultimately didn't get the right result."

Traduit par IA.

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