Howard Webb, head of the referees' committee at the Pro Ref body responsible for managing Premier League referees, has broken his silence on the controversial call that handed Erling Haaland a goal for Manchester City in last Sunday's derby at Old Trafford.
The linesman's flag had ruled the City striker offside. VAR then stepped in to overturn the decision and award the goal, despite team-mate Enzo Fernandez standing in a clear offside position and getting directly involved in the play. That prompted the body to officially admit a serious error in awarding the goal.
Speaking during the first episode of "Match Officials Mic'd Up", which aired the audio recordings between the match officials and the video room, Webb said, according to the official Premier League website: "We felt it was important to acknowledge the mistake in this incident. We know that Erling Haaland, who was penalised by the flag on the pitch, was not in an offside position, but we also recognise that Enzo Fernandez was offside, and he almost certainly interfered with the Manchester United defence, and most likely with the goalkeeper too."
Regret ran through his next words. "I felt hugely disappointed by this outcome, and everyone shares this feeling, above all the officiating team themselves. They take pride in their work and are feeling the pain right now after this shortcoming, and they will not be involved in managing matches until the international break is over."
Webb also revealed direct contact with the Red Devils' management. "We contacted Manchester United and admitted the error, as we always do when such things happen. These mistakes do not happen often, but we are keen on transparency and clarity, so we played the audio recordings and video footage for club officials to explain to them exactly what happened, and we will review this incident to understand the procedural fault that caused us not to reach the correct decision."
Why does the law rule Fernandez offside when he never touched the ball? Webb explained: "Fernandez did not actually touch the ball, and therefore he did not commit the direct concept of offside through touch, but the law penalises offside even without contact. As the cross arrived, we see Fernandez clearly lunging towards it and getting very close to it."
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That lunge, he continued, hit both the defender and goalkeeper directly. "This lunge directly affected the nearby defender Lisandro Martinez, as it prevented him from intervening and clearing the ball, and it also affected the goalkeeper Senne Lammens, who was unable to lunge in the normal way, or braced for the possibility of colliding with Fernandez, which took him out of his correct position when the ball passed by Fernandez and Haaland struck it into the net."
So how did the VAR official miss Fernandez's interference? Webb said: "When the VAR referee began his review, it became apparent to him through the semi-automated offside technology that Haaland was in a correct position by a margin of 3 centimetres thanks to the coverage of defender Patrick Dorgu on the opposite side, and here the referee fell into the trap of excessive focus on Haaland, and assumed the goal was entirely valid."
The failure in the video room ran deeper still. "When the footage was replayed via the full application, the referee did not assess the full impact of Fernandez's position. Instead, he merely checked whether he had touched the ball to pass it to Haaland or not. At that moment he was afflicted by what is known as 'tunnel vision', and focused entirely on Haaland, and the rest of the room's team should have intervened to get him out of this narrow tunnel, which unfortunately did not happen."
Webb also defended Michael Oliver's decision to send off City's Phil Foden for kicking Bruno Fernandes, and rejected the calls to dismiss the Portuguese too. "Fernandes's action reflected recklessness more than violent conduct. Violent conduct requires the use of excessive or brutal force, and when the footage is scrutinised at normal speed we do not find those elements, and therefore the offence warranted only a yellow card."
VAR had no grounds to intervene and demand a booking for Fernandes, the head of the referees' committee added, since Oliver had seen the incident on the pitch and taken his administrative sanction against Foden.