Howard Webb, chief operating officer of Professional Referee Organisation (Pro Ref), has publicly acknowledged that VAR officials suffered from "tunnel vision" when assessing Erling Haaland's winning goal in the Manchester derby — an error that resulted in what should have been a disallowed goal being allowed to stand.

Haaland's strike was initially flagged offside on the field, but VAR intervened and overturned the decision after determining the Manchester City striker was onside. What the officials failed to consider, however, was that Enzo Fernandez — in an offside position — had materially affected the outcome of the move.

How Fernandez influenced play

As the ball moved across the box, Fernandez lunged toward it without making contact. That action alone was enough to obstruct Lisandro Martinez, preventing him from clearing the ball, and also disrupted goalkeeper Senne Lammens, who could not position himself as he normally would.

Under the laws of the game, a player can be penalised for offside without touching the ball — provided they interfere with an opponent. Webb confirmed that Fernandez's movement fulfilled that condition.

"Fernandez doesn't actually touch the ball, so he has not committed what we would call a factual offside offence of interfering with play," Webb explained. "But you can still be penalised even if you do not touch the ball."

VAR's focus on Haaland proved costly

The original on-field call was against Haaland, not Fernandez. When VAR began its review, officials quickly established that Haaland was onside — by just three centimetres — and that focus consumed their attention entirely.

"The VAR gets super focused on Haaland," Webb said. "He establishes he is onside but when he runs it through the full attacking possession phase, he doesn't truly evaluate the full impact of Fernandez. In that moment, he gets tunnel vision — but it is down to the rest of his team to pull him out of that tunnel, and unfortunately that did not happen."

Transcripts of the VAR communication reveal that assistant officials flagged Fernandez early in the check before attention shifted entirely to Haaland's position. Once the system confirmed Fernandez had not touched the ball, the broader question of interference was effectively dropped.

Webb reaches out to Manchester United

Webb said he was "really disappointed" by the outcome and confirmed that Pro Ref had contacted Manchester United directly to acknowledge the mistake and share the relevant audio and video footage. The officials involved will not take charge of any matches until after the international break.

"This goal should have been disallowed," Webb stated plainly. "We want to ensure we are transparent and open."

Pro Ref says it will conduct a full review of the process to identify where the checks failed and prevent a repeat of the same oversight.