On 16 September (CEST), Howard Webb, head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), stated that Manchester City's goal in their 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Sunday should have been allowed, as it was incorrectly ruled out for offside. VAR official Matt Donohue suffered from tunnel vision when Erling Haaland's goal was disallowed.

During this crucial Manchester derby moment, Donohue made a serious error by focusing his VAR check solely on whether Erling Haaland was in an onside position when he received the cross into the penalty area.

Ultimately, Erling Haaland was deemed onside, positioned only 3cm from the offside line. However, the entire decision-making process failed to properly assess the involvement of Manchester City player Enzo Fernández, who moved from an offside position and obstructed Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez. Without consulting with on-field referee Michael Oliver, the goal was disallowed.

Within hours of Manchester United's defeat, PGMOL quickly acknowledged the error as a "refereeing mistake." Webb stated that both Donohue and VAR assistant Blake Antrobus "failed to fully assess the impact of Enzo Fernández's positioning."

Webb said on Tuesday during the Premier League's internal programme "Mic'd Up": "The original on-field decision (to disallow the goal) was not because of Enzo Fernández, but because of Erling Haaland."

"You will hear clearly in the audio that when VAR began their check, they used semi-automated offside technology and found that Erling Haaland was not in an offside position when the ball was played by Doku on the other side, which kept him onside. So VAR focused too heavily on Erling Haaland.

"But of course, when he reviewed the entire attacking sequence in detail, he failed to fully assess the impact of Enzo Fernández's position. He checked whether Enzo Fernández touched the ball, because if he had, it might have meant he deflected it to Erling Haaland, who scored the goal.

"Enzo Fernández did not touch the ball, but VAR did not truly assess other factors relevant to the offside decision at that moment. He had tunnel vision, focusing all his attention on Erling Haaland. Other team members should have helped him overcome this limitation, but unfortunately they did not.

Over the past 48 hours, Webb contacted Manchester United officials, providing them with the audio of the decision and video replay of the match. This very decision allowed Manchester City, reduced to ten men, to secure an important victory. Donohue and Antrobus have been suspended from duties through the end of this weekend's Premier League fixtures and the international break.

Webb added: "I am deeply disappointed with this outcome, and we all are. More so for the officials themselves—they take great personal pride in their work, and clearly they are very upset that they could not make the right call in this situation.

"We have contacted Manchester United and acknowledged the error. We do this whenever similar situations occur. We will review this incident to understand what went wrong in our decision-making process and why we ultimately did not arrive at the correct result."

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