VAR audio of Erling Haaland’s controversial Manchester derby winner released

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The VAR officials who were in charge of Sunday’s Manchester derby failed to check whether Manchester City midfielder Enzo Fernandez was interfering with play for Erling Haaland’s controversial winner against Manchester United, it has been revealed.

Appearing on the Premier League’s Mic’d Up show, referees’ boss Howard Webb said the officials had “tunnel vision” and became “super focused” on assessing whether Haaland was onside, rather than also considering whether Fernandez was committing an offside offence.

Haaland’s goal was awarded after the striker was found to be just onside, but referees’ body Pro Ref said on Sunday night that an “error of judgement” had been made after the role of Fernandez, who made an attempt to touch the ball in the box from an offside position, was not considered.

VAR Matt Donohue and his assistant Blake Antrobus have been stood down from this weekend’s fixtures and Webb, the former Premier League referee and Pro Ref’s chief refereeing officer, said it was “really disappointing” that neither official checked whether Fernandez was interfering.

“We felt it was important that we acknowledged an error in the situation,” Webb said. “We know that Erling Haaland was penalised for offside and wasn’t in an offside position. We also know that Enzo Fernandez, who was in an offside position, almost certainly interfered with the Manchester United defence and probably the goalkeeper.

“I was really disappointed with this outcome, we all were, none more than the officials. They take personal pride in what they do and they are hurting now after falling short in this situation. They will not be officiating until after the international break.

“We have reached out to Manchester United and acknowledged the error, as we do when these things happen and they do not happen often. We want to ensure we are transparent and open.

“We have played the audio and footage to the club to let them know what happened. We will review the situation to understand what elements of the process fell down in this situation which meant we didn’t get to the right outcome.”

Revealed: The exchange in the VAR room

Assistant VAR [Blake Antrobus]: Enzo, Enzo.

Referee [Michael Oliver]: Deflection.

VAR [Matt Donohue]: Possible offside.

Assistant referees [Stuart Burt and Tim Wood]: I’m going to go offside, Haaland.

Referee: On-field decision is offside.

VAR: Checking the on-field decision of offside against Haaland. He’s tight. He’s onside, so now we need to check the full attacking possession phase (APP).

Michael, Haaland’s in an onside position, but I need to check the full APP now, standby. Go back to check if [Iliman] Ndiaye is onside when it is flicked. Quick, quick. Yes it’s fine, so it should be a goal. Let’s go, go, go,

No touch there [from Enzo Fernandez], confirm no touch. Clear gap. It’s not a touch there is it? Goal. Michael, confirming that you need to change your decision to goal. Haaland is in an onside position. Final decision is goal. Check complete.

Howard Webb: VAR got ‘tunnel vision’

Even though Fernandez did not touch the ball, the Manchester City midfielder should still have been penalised for one of a number of offside infringements that impacted Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez and goalkeeper Senne Lammens.

However Webb explained that the VAR officials were too busy checking whether Haaland was offside that they forgot whether to assess how Fernandez was impacting play from an offside position.

Webb added: “We see Fernandez dive towards the ball and he gets close to it. That impacts Martinez – he cannot come and clear the ball. It probably impacts Lammens as well, he cannot dive in the way he would or sets himself for potential contact from Fernandez. It is impacting the defence in a couple of ways as a result of the actions he makes in the offside position.

“The on-field decision was not against Fernandez, it was against Haaland. When the VAR starts their check, they see that Haaland is actually onside by three centimetres. The VAR gets super focused on Haaland. He establishes he is onside but when he runs it through the full APP, he doesn’t truly evaluate the full impact of Fernandez.

“In that moment, he gets tunnel vision but it is down to the rest of his team to pull him out of that tunnel but unfortunately, that did not happen on this occasion. This goal should have been disallowed.”