Howard Webb says VAR ‘hurting’ after Erling Haaland derby goal wrongly allowed

FootballSports
16 Sep 2026 • 12:38 AM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

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Howard Webb says VAR ‘hurting’ after Erling Haaland derby goal wrongly allowed

  • Chief refereeing officer Howard Webb admitted VAR officials suffered from “tunnel vision” during the Manchester derby when they failed to check if Enzo Fernandez committed an offside offence prior to Erling Haaland's winning goal.
  • The referees' body confirmed that an “error of judgement” occurred and Manchester City's goal should have been disallowed, as Fernandez interfered with the Manchester United defence from an offside position.
  • VAR Matt Donohue and assistant Blake Antrobus have been stood down from officiating fixtures until after the upcoming international break as a result of the failure.
  • Webb said that the VAR team were “hurting” after the “very disappointing error” as he explained that they became overly fixated on establishing that Haaland was onside by three centimetres, causing them to overlook Fernandez during the full attacking possession phase.
  • Pro Ref has formally reached out to Manchester United to acknowledge the mistake and shared the officiating audio and video footage with the club in the interest of transparency.

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