Howard Webb Admits VAR Mistake in Manchester Derby
Howard Webb has admitted VAR made a major mistake in Sunday’s Manchester derby – and that Enzo Fernandez’s offside position was never even checked before Erling Haaland’s controversial winner was allowed to stand.
Speaking on the first episode of this season’s ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’, the Premier League’s chief refereeing officer said he was “really disappointed” with the failure of VAR Matt Donohue and assistant Blake Antrobus to identify an offside offence in the build-up.
Haaland thought he had scored the only goal of the game at Old Trafford on the hour mark, only for the on-field officials to initially rule it out for offside. VAR then stepped in. The semi-automated offside technology showed Haaland was three centimetres onside from Josko Gvardiol’s cross, and the decision was overturned. Goal given. City celebrated.
And then the replays rolled.
They showed Fernandez in a central position, diving at the ball and clearly engaging defenders, including Lisandro Martinez, who had been tracking Haaland before moving towards Fernandez. That movement left Haaland free at the back post to finish – and raised an obvious question: was Fernandez offside and interfering with play?
According to Webb, that question was never properly asked in the VAR booth.
“I was really disappointed with this outcome. We all are,” Webb said. “None more so than the officials themselves. They take a lot of personal pride in what they do and they're obviously hurting now, having fallen short in this situation.
“They'll not be officiating again until after the international break.”
Supporters had already been asking how the VAR team could possibly conclude Fernandez had not committed an offside offence. Former England striker Wayne Rooney, speaking on Match of the Day, called it “baffling”, saying that “anyone who has played the game at any level” would recognise Fernandez’s impact from an offside position.
The audio from ‘Mic’d Up’ laid bare what went wrong. At no stage did Donohue or Antrobus seriously assess Fernandez’s position. Their attention locked on Haaland and stayed there.
“The VAR gets super-focused on Haaland,” Webb explained, revealing he had already shared the audio and video with Manchester United. “He establishes he's onside, he thinks that's a good goal.
“He doesn't truly evaluate the full impact of Fernandez's position. He has a look to see if he touches the ball, because then that relates to potentially knocking it to Haaland, who goes on to score.
“In that moment, he gets tunnel vision. It's down to the rest of his team to pull him out of that tunnel, and unfortunately, that didn't happen on this occasion.”
So the check became narrow: did Fernandez touch the ball and create a new phase? When the officials decided he did not, the review stopped. The wider, more subjective question – was Fernandez offside and clearly impacting play even without a touch? – never received the scrutiny it demanded.
“What looks like a really clear subjective offside, because Fernandez doesn't touch the ball but still clearly impacts [the play but] doesn't get identified, and it's really disappointing,” Webb said.
“This goal should've been disallowed. And highly unfortunately, it wasn't, and we'll review it, reflect upon it, and try to take the learning forward to prevent this unusual type of error from happening again.”
The derby result will not change. The scrutiny on VAR most certainly will.
