{"id":847743,"date":"2026-09-14T18:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847743\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T18:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:12:12","slug":"manchester-derby-var-officials-stood-down-from-duty-after-error-of-judgement-on-erling-haaland-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847743\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester derby VAR officials stood down from duty after \u2018error of judgement\u2019 on Erling Haaland goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The decision was made to allow what ended up being Manchester City’s winning goal in Sunday’s game at Old Trafford. Michael Regan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Matt Donohue, the video assistant referee (VAR)\u00a0who oversaw the process which incorrectly allowed Erling Haaland\u2019s goal in the Manchester derby, has not been selected to officiate in the Premier League this coming weekend.<\/p>\n

Assistant VAR Blake Antrobus will also not be involved after\u00a0Pro Ref, English football\u2019s refereeing body, said after the game<\/a> that an \u201cerror of judgement\u201d had been made when applying VAR to the only goal of the game in Manchester City\u2019s win at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

Donohue, the lead VAR official for the incident, has not been appointed for next weekend\u2019s Premier League fixture list. It will be the first matchday this season in which the 37-year-old will not be involved, having also worked as VAR for Brighton & Hove Albion\u2019s opening-day win over Aston Villa, Sunderland\u2019s defeat of Fulham and Newcastle United\u2019s draw with Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

Donohue is not involved in this midweek round of Carabao Cup action.<\/p>\n

The decision was made by Pro Ref\u2019s chief refereeing officer Howard Webb and the body\u2019s management team and means neither will officiate until at least after the upcoming international break<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Fernandez was in an offside position in the lead-up to the goal (Catherine Ivill \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Haaland\u2019s goal was initially disallowed for offside as the Norwegian striker appeared to be ahead of Manchester United full-back Patrick Dorgu, while midfielder Enzo Fernandez was lunging towards the cross from an offside position \u2014 but this decision was overturned by the VAR.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for English football\u2019s refereeing body said on Sunday evening following the match that the VAR \u201cdid not recognise the likely impact of his (Fernandez\u2019s) position and should have recommended an on-field review\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Pro Ref statement added: \u201cContact has been made with Manchester United to acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement. A review of the incident will take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rules of the Premier League state that \u201ca player will be penalised if they are clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent\u201d. Fernandez was being marked at the time by United defender Lisandro Martinez, who in turn had left Haaland free at the back post.<\/p>\n

During the match, the Premier League match centre said: \u201cVAR checked the referee\u2019s call of no goal for offside \u2013 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\u2019t play the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Sep 14, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision was made to allow what ended up being Manchester City’s winning goal in Sunday’s game at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[4896,3788,1084,403,99],"class_list":["post-847743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}