Erling Haaland’s Man City goal decision vs Man Utd an ‘error of judgement', says Pro Ref

In a statement released just hours after Man City's win, Pro Ref revealed it had made contact with Man Utd to acknowledge an "error of judgment" and that the VAR "should have recommended an on-field review" for Erling Haaland's winner.

Sky Sports News understands United have received an apology over the incorrect VAR decision. However, United will take no further action with Pro Ref despite remaining hugely frustrated by the situation. United have appreciated the effort Howard Webb and ProRef have made to apologise and explain the mistake.

The striker's goal was initially disallowed for offside on the pitch before VAR overturned the decision.

The VAR officials deemed that Haaland was played onside by Man Utd defender Patrick Dorgu. However, Man City's Enzo Fernandez was in an offside position as he attempted to play the ball before it reached Haaland.

Despite not touching the ball, Fernandez's movement appeared to impact the defending of Man Utd's Lisandro Martinez before Haaland's back-post finish, which by the laws of the game should have led to the goal remaining disallowed.

A Pro Ref spokesperson said: "Following the incident in the 60th minute of Sunday's Premier League fixture between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford, we can provide clarification regarding Erling Haaland's awarded goal.

"The on-field decision was offside against Erling Haaland - that was checked by VAR and he was found to be in an onside position.

"In the same attack, it was established that Enzo Fernandez did not play the ball and therefore that makes any offside offence subjective, however, on this occasion, the VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review.

"Contact has been made with Manchester United this evening to acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement. A review of the incident will take place."

In their post on X explaining why the goal was awarded, the Premier League Match Centre wrote: 'VAR checked the referee's call of no goal for offside - and determined that Haaland was in an onside position and recommended that the goal was awarded. The VAR also deemed that while in an offside position, Fernandez didn't play the ball.'

That stress on Fernandez not playing the ball chimed with replays shown during the VAR review, in which the VAR officials apparently sought to detect whether or not the City midfielder played the ball.

However, the offside rule clearly stipulates that a player can be offside despite not playing the ball and can interfere with an opponent by:

preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or

clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or

making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball

Speaking at the time of the goal on co-commentary, Sky Sports' Gary Neville believed the VAR officials were "wrong" to award Haaland's effort.

Pro Ref's statement, however, fell short of Neville's prediction that they would apologise.

The former Man Utd defender told Sky Sports : "We will see an apology from Pro Ref.

"There is no doubt that Enzo is attempting to play the ball and putting Lisandro Martinez off.

"It's a really strange one. They'll recognise they got that wrong."

Speaking on his podcast, Neville continued: "I think they are ignoring the rule.

"They are digging themselves a bigger hole [with the Match Centre statement]. I'm really surprised they put that out.

Meanwhile, Man Utd defender Martinez said in his post-match interview that the goal should not have stood.

He told Sky Sports : "Every season the officials come to our club and spend an hour explaining the rules and they look so confident with that.

"Then after, five or six people [officials] doing this kind of mistake in the Premier League is unacceptable.

"We have to go home with this injustice."

Former Man City defender Micah Richards dismissed Match Centre's explanation that the goal was awarded because Fernandez didn't touch the ball as a "nonsense".

Asked whether Fernandez was clearly attempting to play the ball, Richards told Sky Sports : "One hundred per cent he is.

"I think it's been a bad day for referees and VAR.

"They got the Phil Foden decision wrong , and they got this decision wrong.

"How you can not say Enzo Fernandez is challenging for the ball - of course he is!

"I've been in that position as a defender where any slight movement can make the difference for going for the ball or not, so of course it affects him.

Roy Keane concluded: "Fernandez is interfering with play. Basically, United have been punished for holding a good line. When you are in that position, you are impacting the game. You're in the middle of the box, you're going for the ball.

"Their line is good. Fernandez is offside, and he goes to play the ball, so United are getting punished for good defending."

Carragher: 'It's a bad one from officials'

Jamie Carragher also admitted that the decision to allow Haaland's goal to stand was "a bad one."

Speaking ahead of Monday Night Football, the former Liverpool defender said: "It's a bad one. We all look at it and it looks offside. Haaland looks offside but we know he's not. Then when you break it down, it is poor from the officials.

"It seems to me they've become obsessed with Haaland being onside. They haven't gone into as much detail with Fernandez in the middle and understanding of his impact on it."

The incident drew comparisons of the mistake that occurred when Luis Diaz and Liverpool saw a goal wrongly ruled out for offside against Tottenham, where the VAR process showed the Colombian to be onside.

Carragher believes that remains the worse of the two VAR mistakes.

"I suppose Liverpool's one was more of a communication error and understanding the process of what they should be doing," he added.

"What happened yesterday was a huge error and it was a huge game. One of the biggest games not just in our league, but around the world. There was only one goal in the game which makes it feel worse.

"I think it's different to the Liverpool one because you don't expect that not to be a goal. They confirm it's a goal, really. I'm still going for the Liverpool one [being worse]."