Howard Webb shares what went wrong during the Manchester derby VAR review as officials’ conversation is made public.
The full audio behind the controversial offside call on Erling Haaland’s winning goal in the Manchester derby has been shared, as Howard Webb explains what happened.
Haaland scored the only goal of the match, helping City secure a historic win despite being down to 10 men after Phil Foden got a red card for reacting to Manchester United’s captain Bruno Fernandes in the first half.
At first, the goal was ruled out for offside by the linesman. But after a VAR review, it was clear Haaland was actually onside, so the referee Michael Oliver allowed the goal.
The big controversy came from Enzo Fernandez, who was offside. Even though he didn’t touch the ball, he tried to make a diving header. The Premier League quickly explained the situation, but then the referees’ group admitted there was a mistake and said Fernandez did make contact with United.
The audio from the officials during the moment was released on the first episode of this season’s ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’. Here’s a peek at what they said:
Assistant VAR: Enzo, Enzo.
VAR: Possible offside.
VAR: Checking if Haaland is offside. He’s close but onside, so now we check the whole attacking play.
They confirmed Haaland was onside, and then checked if Iliman Ndiaye was onside when the ball was flicked. Yes, so it should be a goal.
They confirmed no touch from Fernandez and gave the final decision: goal.
Michael, please change your decision to a goal — check complete.
Because of this, Matt Donohue and Blake Antrobus, the VAR officials, have been stood down from their next Premier League matches. It’s even been suggested they might not work on United games going forward.
Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer, spoke about the matter live on Sky Sports. He shared the details and the audio exchange between officials about awarding Haaland’s goal.
He said, “We knew Haaland was wrongly called offside. We also know Fernandez was offside and probably impacted the Manchester United defense and goalkeeper. We’re disappointed, especially the officials, who take great pride in their work. They won’t be refereeing until after the international break.
“We have reached out to Manchester United and explained the error. We want to be open and honest. We played the audio and footage to the club to show what happened. We’ll review the process to see where things went wrong.
“Fernandez didn’t actually touch the ball, so it’s not a clear offside by the rules. But you can still be penalised if you interfere, even without touching the ball. Fernandez’s dive disrupted Martinez and the goalkeeper because of his offside position. That impacted the defense.
“On the field, the call was about Haaland. VAR found Haaland onside, but didn’t fully consider Fernandez’s influence. The VAR got focused on Haaland and missed the bigger picture. His team should have helped, but they didn’t this time. This goal should have been disallowed.”
So, it’s clear there was a mix-up, and everyone is looking at how to make sure it doesn’t happen again!